 Markup Language Optimization Part 1All right, when it comes to the nitty gritty of code validation, who cares? Google does.
I used to be on the “Who Cares?” team and I was feeling fine about that, in some ways I still am, and I want proof that I’m wrong, why?
W3.org is standard.
Edward Lewis aka pageoneresults is a resource I respect very much on SEO. I don’t know Edward in person, but I’ve been following his professional career for quite some years on WMW, SEO Consultants and, lately, on Twitter. Edward is a very dedicated w3.org compliance agitator and though I’m not convinced, I’m ready to take up the challenge.
My theory and reason for trying this experiment is:
Code optimization and compliance to w3.org standards will be mandatory as web 3.0 standards of semantic data will weigh more in search engine relevance calculations and hence in SERPS.
Why should I care?
The w3.org compliance report from Seoconsultants showed 237 errors and 15 warnings. My website ranks very well for both my top keywords and long tail as well, so even if I have 237 errors and 15 warnings, my approach has been to get links, good links.
Good links will outperform anything.
This is actually the case and Edward Lewis aka pageoneresults agrees 100 percent on that, so why should I bother optimizing my code? The well known argument is that if two websites compete there will be a small advantage to the website which best complies with the specifications of the w3.org.
The small advantage is not really convincing as an argument for spending hours or days cleaning up my code, what was interesting was the emphasis on semantics. (And the fact that errors are cascading and 237 errors probably would go to 137 with very little effort).
Easy reading and semanticsGooglebot is ultimately built to read and comply with the specifications laid out by the w3.org, and by making my website comply with the specifications too, I would make the job easier for Googlebot. In other words, debugging bad code and adding semantic data will make my website easy reading for Google.
By building on the same set of markup rules, conveying semantic data via HTML/XHTML elements, microformats or RDFa, would make it possible to tell Googlebot what the page is about, and not leave it to Google to guess, no matter how qualified that guess would be.
As social media search and penetration becomes larger, Google is already putting more emphasis on semantic data, best illustrated by Googles support of microformats. Proper semantic data on a website will, I expect, make the site more appealing for real time search, Rich snippets, multimedia and especially semantic search engines like Wolfram Alpha.
An example of the importance of communicating semantic data:Google have just released its Rich Snippet Preview page.
 SCREENSHOT : Google Rich Snippet Testing Tool
 SCREENSHOT : Google Rich Snippet Testing Tool
If you follow @pageoneresults on Twitter, Eward Lewis will give you plenty of other examples on the use of XHTML semantic elements (HTML 4). The Lab
So what I want to do is setup a code optimization lab. It won’t be clinical, more pages and more links will continuously be added, as has been the case since the website launched in April 2009. The experiment will be on code optimization and besides complying with the w3.org specifications; Edward showed me some very interesting ways to optimize semantic data commands for the search engine robots to better understand the content of my website.
My website is built on the RedPitt CMS and luckily the chief programmer is a good friend, and he is eager to optimize the code too. We hope to have finished code cleaning and adding semantic tags by end of September.
Status, beginning of September 2009:
W3.org Validation:
Rankings:
 Site saturation:
 SCREENSHOT: Marketleap Search Engine Saturation - smm.dk result
Backlinks:
The Impossible Experiment
This experiment is mostly done for my own sake, I’m still skeptical about the value of code validation, but absolutely not about the enhanced message delivery possibilities in semantic and meta information definitions, be it XHTML, microformats or RDFa.
So by applying to the w3.org specifications and adding semantic rules to smm.dk, I hope to be more precise and clearly understood in more combinations of search, i.e. Google Universal Search, Twitter Search, Facebook Search, Wolfram Alfa (and related semantic searches).
The Lab is in no way clinical, besides developments in new links and new content, there are unpredictable factors like trust, respect, “brand” and other factors which are closely related to the popularity of my site, but the above mentioned stats, will provide some kind of benchmark.
Twitter comments on the value of optimized mark up language: David Naylor, North South Media, Please add other mentions to the comments. KommentarerDer er ingen kommentarer at viseTilføj kommentar |
  
 Social Media Marketing (SMM) er indholdsmarkedsføring som skaber relationer. Digital tilstedeværelse kræver i dag Search and Social marketing. Context is King.Ulstrup er uddannet antropolog og har arbejdet med digital marketing siden 1997. Nye artikler
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