Previously in this blog, we introduced Web Standards from the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, and discussed how coding mistakes can creep into your web pages and affect how visitors see your pages. We also showed you how you can use the W3C Validator to check your pages for errors and how the Validator displays your coding errors so you can correct them easily.

We also stressed the fact that web pages that conform to W3C Standards serve to enhance accessibility and provide for long-term compatibility. In other words, if you want your pages to be seen by the largest audience for the longest possible time, then validating your pages to assure they conform to W3C standards is the way to go.

Today we will cover another subject having to do with your pages adhering to W3C standards and how it might serve to help with your search engine rankings.

Currently, there is some controversy regarding search engine ranking and pages that conform to W3C standards. Many web developers will tell you that W3C compliance has nothing to do with your site ranking stating that search engine spiders don’t see web pages the same way that people do. Others will tell you that W3C compliance is extremely important to rankings because compliant code makes it easy for search engine spiders to spider your pages and glean more content from them.

Our position is that pages that validate with current W3C standards CAN perform better after they are brought to compliance. We’ve seen it happen. The bottom line is, if you’re concerned about increasing your search engine rank having your site validate to W3C standards is a necessity.

We believe that the real estate industry is a highly competitive business. Our clients need every advantage they can get when it comes to the Internet. So, if a difference in search engine ranking can be realized by simply adhering to current web standards, then why would we hamper our customers business by not following those standards?

Google states in their Webmaster Help Group that pages in compliance with current standards have a slight advantage when it comes to ranking by being more accessible by visitors with disabilities or folks accessing your pages on portable or other devices. Since this can improve the popularity of your site, it may increase incoming links to your site, which can help with your ranking and traffic.

That’s not to say that small errors in your HTML markup will penalize your rankings with Google or any other search engine. It certainly won’t make your site invisible to search engine spiders. But, it can disrupt the important process of parsing all your pages for important content.

There are many factors that contribute to search engine ranking and simply assuring that your pages are compliant with W3C standards won’t suddenly push you from non-existent to a top-ten position. But, compliance can help increase the ranking of a site that meets all the other SEO criteria.