StandardsGirl.com – Views From Within

If Content Is Google’s King – Then Valid Code Must Be Its Prince!

September 4, 2008

Sphinn This Post!
September 16th, 2009 – AMENDED THEORY > After getting slammed on Digg for the ideas posted, I realized I had slightly inverted my argument. So while I still maintain that it is valid code that matters, it is not that Google checks for valid code, but it is what is in valid (and accessible) code that makes the difference. Thanks! (First posted Sept. 4, 2008)
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“Personally, I do think creating clean code that validates and works on many different browsers will be an important skill for webmasters and web designers.”

Matt Cutts September 2, 2008 @ 3:21 pm · Filed under Chrome, Google/SEO

Google SEO guru Matt Cutts said something interesting yesterday, but so far it seems pretty quiet on the blog front, so maybe it went unnoticed or maybe no one cares. However, for me it was a small “attaboy” that spoke to something I have always secretly suspected (and drawn odd glares for when articulated): code matters! Not only does it matter, but Matt Cutts just verified that we need to be aware that it matters…and my guess is fairly soon.*

Now, this is not just any code, but good valid W3C compliant code. Yes, I am aware this has been a debate in the community for years. Even for me, though I know Google has said in their guidelines that code matters, every time I asked an engineer I was always met with a firm, “It has no bearing at all.” I kept thinking, But it must. Google has it in the guidelines that it should not only be compliant, but accessible (Lynx Browsers are accessibility browsers).

So with this in mind, I went to conferences and talked to Google Engineers who all told me that code validation was not part of the algorithm. I was told repeatedly that valid W3C compliant, accessible code did NOT factor into the ranking of a site, but I never quite believed it – as a person who not only works in SEO, but is actually an integral part of creating sites from beginning to end I noticed something about sites that are compliant, accessible and SEO friendly. They often did better than others despite not having much in the way of links or sometimes even content and always with lower PR.

Nevertheless, the engineers said no and so I went merrily on my way still doing compliant accessible code, but for my own sense of well-being more than for anyone else. I worked and I believed what the Google engineers told me until one day I created a site, loaded it on the net and went home. Just before bed I decided to see if it was in the index yet. I did not expect it to be there, however I had heard Google was crawling sites much faster. I was just curious how fast. Well, to my surprise (and shock) the site was in the top 10 on some important keywords. Were these highly competitive keywords? No, of course not, but my site was ranking, in the top 10, 12 hours after launch. At PubCon I asked a Google Engineer if he could explain it and he just looked at me dumfounded. He said. “I knew we were crawling faster, but even I cannot explain that.” So, he took the site name and told me if he found out why, he would let me know. Of course, that went into the ether and I was left to wonder what makes this site different?

So what did make our site different? Why would it rank so fast during the time of the Google “sandbox”? I had to ask myself: Is it content? Doubtful, as the site had less than ten pages. Was it links? No, the site had none as it was only 12 hours old. Was it domain age? Maybe partially as the domain had been purchased about five years earlier, but this would not explain why the site ranked in the top 10 for some main keywords. So what could it be? Am I just an SEO rock star that did not know it? Of course not! So I thought and thought and I developed a theory about these sites quick rise to the top: code matters! Still, I had to wait until the launch of my latest site to prove it to my befuddled brain.

If anyone was at SES San Jose and sat in the “white hat – black hat” session, they might have heard Dave Naylor talk about a girl he met in a bar and her assertion that her site was ranking only a couple of weeks out of the box purely for content. That was my site. Dave was kind enough not to mention our name, but we are a flooring information site called FindAnyFloor.com who only uses “white hat” SEO practices. No paid links, no black hat, just 1500 pages of unique original well-written content. Dave went on to say, much as he hated to, as it was so cliché, that maybe content was king or at least prince and maybe links were not as important as we all thought. Well it is two weeks since that session. The site is still gathering top 10, and number one, rankings averaging a few hundred visitors a day from being found on over 1,800 organic terms — all within three weeks. So I have to agree with Dave. With barely a link to our name and only three weeks of face time with Google, content is still a category killer for SEO these days. However, there is something else unique about our site. Something that I know most SEOers will say is unimportant, but I believe Matt Cutts might have just changed all that with his blog this week. Our site is W3C compliant and accessible** to those with disabilities: Two of the Google guidelines that are most often overlooked. And though I had always secretly suspected, I think I can confidently say now, content may be king, but compliant code may just be about to become prince!

Our site’s code is clean and getting cleaner every day as we find our way out of the BETA launch. I do not think it can be overlooked as a factor anymore. But why would it matter? Why would Google care about compliant or accessible code? Well Google is a business and as a business they have business concerns: resources, competition and monetization. So why would Google care about compliant sites? Do we even know they do? Well of course we cannot be sure, though I suspect Matt Cutt’s words were selected very carefully. But if you give me that they do, then I believe I can tell you why they would. It is really quite simple to me.

Top 3 Reasons Google Cares About Your Code

Ok, I have no crystal ball and am only theorizing here, but if I were Google this is why I would care.

1. Resources: While content helps Google create better search results, Google must expend many resources scraping content out of mucky convoluted code bases that would make even the most seasoned programmer weep. If content is surrounded by clean, crisp, valid code, then getting that content becomes much easier and much less resource dependent.
2. Competition: Cuil’s entry into the marketplace came with more of a smirk than a frown from Google, but that does not mean there is not the next Cuil around the corner. Cuil’s claim to fame was that it had collected many more pages than Google. If Google could spend more of its resources indexing clean, crisp, valid sites, its spiders would be more efficient at gathering content. More content equals better results because more content means more chances for great content. Better options help Google maintain the dominance in the industry. After all, it was not that long ago that everyone said no one could beat Yahoo. My how things change!
3. Monetization: My name is Google and I must continually expand my ability to increase monetization numbers. How can I do this? We have all heard rumors about future PPC nightmares such as Google differentiating between capitalized and lower case search terms, but there is no need. All you would have to do is start to increase the weight the algorithm gives sites that are clean and compliant. (Over 95% of sites on the web do not meet even basic accessibility requirements) Bring these closer to the top, and whoever is left will have to pay to rank were they did before. Obviously, this would not be a main point on the algorithm, but it has become a more heavily weighted one. I would tell you why I know this, but then I could damage a top ranking on my site. But you can try it yourself, and I imagine you will find the same results.

To me, it just makes sense for Google. The rewards for their business model would be exponential and there may even be a bit of manifest or latent social entrepreneurship occurring here. Use your power to create a Web that is accessible to all, disabled or not. But that may be a little too idealistic of me, thought part of me would like to think that is the ultimate plan.

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And just in case my argument has fallen short – from Matt Cutts.

“Here’s my personal take. If people like and use the web more, that’s eventually good for Google because they will do more searches. Therefore it’s in Google’s interests to make the web better, more accessible and more useful. And Google Chrome does that by making the web faster, safer, and more stable.”

Matt Cutts September 2, 2008 @ 3:21 pm · Filed under Chrome, Google/SEO

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*Google already lowers quality score for page weight.

** Mostly as we are in the final stage of BETA and running through the checkers now to make sure all pages are indeed compliant.

Entry Filed under: 2008,Google,SES San Jose,search,search engines,seo. Tags: black hat, business, dave naylor, findanyfloor, findanyfloor.com, Google Chrome, internet, matt cutts, news, People, search engines, seo, seobandy, sphinn, technology, thoughts, white hat, wordpress.