To Validate or not to Validate

To Validate or not to Validate…That is the question.

Does your HTML code validate? … But first, do you know what valid HTML means?

Let me start by explaining what Valid HTML means.

Validating HTML documents (web documents)  is conforming them to the W3C HTML and XHTML standards.

So what is the W3C you may ask.  The W3C is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web (W3). Its main job is the development of standards for the world wide web but it also undertakes educational and outreach programs and develops software as well as serve as an open forum for discussions about the Web.

So back to my original question … to validate or not to validate?

I personally think that it is good practice to have valid html documents as per the following 7 reasons to have valid HTML code:

1. Web Site Accessibility
2. Search engine friendly pages
3. Faster Loading
4. Less load on servers
5. Easier to update and maintain web site
6. Browser compatibility
7. Access more visitors

However, is it crucial to have valid HTML code in order to rank?

I say no, and Matt Cutts from Google agrees with me:

To stress my point, I did an HTML validation test on each of the 3 main search engines’ home pages; Google, Yahoo and MSN and here are the results:

Google: 51 errors
Yahoo: 34 errors
MSN: They actually pass!

Bottom line… Validate if you can and know how to but if you don’t or don’t know how to don’t lose sleep over it, you will still rank.