Clean HTML Coding - Importance of Clean HTML Code

Search Engine Placement and the Importance of Clean HTML Code
A factor that many overlook, but that is just as important as keyword research and application, search engine submission, or link popularity, is the size, appearance, and cleanliness of your HTML coding. The size, cleanliness, and appearance and presentation to the search engine robots and spiders can be the difference between ranking #1 and #12.

Size of HTML Coding and Page
Nowadays, it seems as though every web page designer likes the use of Flash, Java Script, or in some cases - dynamic page generation tools like ASP, PHP, of Cold fusion’s CFM. While these tools make database integration and visual appearance both simplified and amazing - it can also hinder the optimization value of a page - and do so in the eye of every search engine. Bear in mind that there are two elements that a search engine's spiders and robots can read and decipher. That is the actual HTML markup code, and the ASCII text that appears on the page itself. Regardless of which search engine is your target, it is wise to have the ASCII text contained within your page outweigh the HTML coding of the page.
Every search engine prefers a different amount of text on the page, a different overall page size, and of course, a different keyword density ratio. Google, for example, likes small page sizes, with the size ranging.
When the search engines come to your web page, they have a number of things that they are going to be looking for, and a number of things that they don't want to find on the page.

Some of the criteria that the search engine robots look for are:

• Text, text, text, and more text
• Keyword rich text
• Links and Link titles
• A keyword density percentage
• Large text sizes
• Title tags
• Alt tags
• H1-5 Tags
• Frames tag if using Frames

Some of the things that the search engine robots do not want to find on your page are:

• To little text
• Keyword Stuffing
• Heavy Java Script
• Large File Sizes
• Small Text Sizes
• Frames

Each search engine puts a different amount of weight on each of these criteria, but general rules apply across the board.

When the search engine robots visit your web page, and site for that matter, they will want to see certain things at the top of your HTML code. This is what we mean by the appearance of your HTML code: the things that the search engines look for in ranking a web site should be as close to the top as possible. This is not the rule that applies to all search engines, as a few of them do prefer to see text and links near the bottom of the page as well.

Validating your HTML coding is something that not only touches upon optimization issues, but usability and browser rendering. Using an HTML validator, like CSE Validator Pro, will allow you to clean up your HTML code to remove all unneeded tags, add the tags that you do need, check your spelling, and eliminate code errors that will result in browsers rendering your pages wrong. Having your HTML in the correct format, with all the correct tags in place, is something that search engines look for, and can help your optimization efforts as well.