Does clean HTML lead to better Search Engine Rankings?

I've seen numerous posts where people have claimed that good clean HTML leads to better SEO rankings. I've even talked about the lie that of the link between SEO and valid HTML. I've yet to see any studies done which verify this claim and in fact I've even seen evidence to the opposite effect being true. I pointed out how in some competitive markets, the higher the ranking for the site the worse the validation recently in another post. This does not mean that poor code relates to higher … [Read more...]

Valid HTML Helps Search Engine Rankings – NOT!

Image via Wikipedia There are lots of interesting theories out there about how one can get there site to rank better in search engines. Unfortunately much of this advice, while it would make since, is wrong. One example is that correct, valid HTML code is important for search engines to read your website, and thus for you rank highly. This makes sense for several reasons: bad code may not be read by a search engine as it doesn't know what it sees, search engines want to promote … [Read more...]

Search Engines and Flash Files

In the past, the search engines (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Live, et all) couldn't really search Flash files that well. Well Adobe has been working with the search engines to allow them to search the Flash sites, widgets, buttons, and more. This is good news on the surface, but still requires one digging a little deeper before trying to get a nifty Flash site. Here are three quick take aways to know about, before The first thing to know, is you still have to use text, as text, to be … [Read more...]

Google fills out your search forms

Occasionally I have found sites that on their home page you would have to select a company or product from a drop down box, and then enter the site from that information. Until now, Google could not access those pages without being provided direct links. Sites with these types of pages were often called the "Deep Web" or the "Invisible Web", because search engines could not access them. Google has said in the past that they believe that 80% or more of web pages are "hidden" to them because … [Read more...]