The Importance of Valid Code in SEO
April 22nd, 2009 Posted 6:47 pm
The text for this video is below.
The Importance of Proper Code for SEO
Okay – Welcome to another episode of SEO JESUS, We here are SEO JESUS HQ are happy you tuned in. Todays topic is The Importance of Good Code is SEO - I’ve got a funny little story about his actually – I’m gonna go a little off-book here – before I got into the SEO game I did a little this and that you know – some fishing – i had a little handyman service for a while – and then I got a job as a junior site developer at a local place – I had been playing around on the web and built a could of sites for friends so I had a pretty good portfolio – and I must have aced the interview – but anyway – i get the job and I am there you know – doing updates to sites and ripping photoshop templates – you know – the monkey work – and so I am updating the text on this one site – I think it was like a site that dealt with doors or something – and in the process I saw – I don’t know – something simple -
I think it was like an open paragraph tag or something – so after I go through it I run it through the validator and find some other stuff – you know it wasn’t terribly sloppy code of anything, just some goofs here and there – so as i am updating the site I clean it up and – you know – log my hours and I move on the next task.
Well lo and behold – or high and behold in my case – about a week later the boss comes over and says – hey jesus – what did you do to that one sit e- the doors account – and I’m like – what? all I did was update the text… oh – and I validated the code too. So he’s all like – they just called and saw themselves on the first page of google for the first time ever and wanted to know who to thank – so I was like – I guess that validation helped them – huh – and he was like – yeah – I guess it did – and now – you didn’t do anything wrong or anything – I just need to understand what you did so I could charge the next guy for it -
Now – this was back in the day when SEO wasn’t the biggest buzzword on the block – but I had been doing things – you know – trying tricks and coding my way to the top of a couple of searches for this rosary bead affiliate program I was running. So I did have these tricks up my sleeve – or up my robe… they weren’t really tricks either – they were just what would become part of the foundation of my SEO program -
So anyways – the boss asks me to write everything I know up so he can present it to customers as Ranking Improvement Program – the R I P he used to call it. Anyways, I wrote up something for him – not the tricks I did, but something that explained in a very vague way the fact that I would go into the pages and sites and do some tricks. Because as we all know – the tricks and the actual work that goes into a program is the coinage of the realm. You can;t just give it away . So telling people what you are going to do without telling them what you are going to do has become an art form all its own – but hey – lets save that for another posting and go back to the essence of this posting – which is proper code.
In three words I can sum up what a good SEO program insists of as far as the code goes. Validate Validate Validate. Its actually just one word repeated three times – but I think you get the drift…. Conversely, if you cant validate for whatever reason – like you don’t have time to implement the Flash satay method for your flash – its ok. You don’t actually need 100% validation on all your items – but the contextual items certainly are of paramount importance in good SEO – that is what you need to look out for – the whole picture makes a whole picture – but the contextual items are def in the top tier….
To that end we here at SEOJ have our own validator – well – its actually not a validator at all – its just a link to the W3c validator – but if your pages do validate over there we do offer you a blessing that you can put on your site – we have faith that you won’t slap it on your site unless your pages do validate… but hey – even if they don’t… we still will bless your site…. we are here after all, to spread the love…. -so I’ve done a little incantation over the code and graphics – which is certain to impress, amaze, and perhaps even astound your visitor – and most importantly if your code does validate and get our blessing – you stand a better chance at rising in the rankings and getting to the top of the searches for your particular keyword phrase, which – as we say here at SEO JESUS – is the name of the game.
OK – so thats it for today. We hope you all will continue sharing the light of love that is life and proper code. Please remember to check back in - our next webisode is in the works – so take care, good coding and bless you all – I am SEO Jesus for SEO Jesus.
