Google: Bad HTML Validation Doesn't Hurt Rankings But Can Impact Structured Data

Jul 22, 2015 - 8:53 am 2 by

Colorful Facets Wide Google

Google has said many times that poor or invalid HTML validation doesn't impact rankings. Of course, web sites that don't work, a search engine cannot crawl. But if your site works but doesn't validate with HTML validation tools does not impact crawling, indexing, or ranking.

Google's John Mueller said on Google+ this week that poor HTML validation may impact other SEO related aspects, outside of ranking. John said it can impact "meta-tags, structured data, or link-elements (for example, if your hreflang markup isn't being picked up properly)."

He even gave an example:

In a recent example, a site was accidentally including a banner in the HEAD of a page. That might look ok in a browser, but it breaks the markup in the HEAD, causing us to potentially ignore the rest of it. A HTML validator can catch that for you. While validators aren't perfect, they will help you get closer to clean markup, which will make it easier to automatically extract your site's meta-data.

Personally, I use the https://validator.w3.org/ when I need one, there are lots of other options too.

So keep this all in mind, as schema and these other implementations make more of an impact on your CTR.

Forum discussion at Google+.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 3, 2025

Jul 3, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google Ads

New Google Ads AI Max Search Match Type

Jul 3, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Top Stop Serving Message Assets With Unverified Phone Numbers

Jul 3, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Similarweb: No Clicks From Google Grew From 56% to 69% Since AI Overviews

Jul 3, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google

Report: Over 12% Of People Also Ask Results Are Google AI Overviews

Jul 3, 2025 - 7:21 am
Google Maps

Google Tests Local Panel Tab Buttons Under Main Search Bar

Jul 3, 2025 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: Google: HTTPS Acts As A Dealbreaker In A Google Ranking Tie