netmeg - 7:44 pm on Feb 11, 2011 (gmt 0)

@netmeg Do you really think that valid HTML helps rankings if the site architecture is otherwise optimized and Google can find and crawl the content? I've heard both sides of the debate and have certainly had no problem ranking sites #1 for competitive terms when the site has a ton of validation errors. Also, valid to which DOCTYPE?

No, I don't think validation directly helps rankings. I try to validate because it's the quickest way to find errors and warnings about issues that could be preventing users or search engines from seeing the site at its full capacity. And I think stuff like that does affect rankings.

I'm still validating to XHTML Strict. I keep trying to validate mobile pages to Mobile, but the standards are like *impossible*