forgot </html> tag could this affect ranking?

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forgot </html> tag could this affect ranking?

dauction

8:04 pm on Jul 25, 2002 (gmt 0)

Been have a heck of a time getting any decent ranking on ANY of the SE's for one of my sites..I mean it's WAY back there ! LOL

..and just noticed none of my pages had my closing html tag...could that really have been the problem?

papabaer

8:22 pm on Jul 25, 2002 (gmt 0)

Mistakes happen. Just another good reason to validate your code. Catch the errors before they cost you...

victor

8:45 pm on Jul 25, 2002 (gmt 0)

Any barrier you throw in the way of spiders is not good for business.

But I wouldn't have thought it affected your Google ranking, for example. That depends for a large part on incoming links for PageRank, and words between <body> and </body> for relevance.

If you do leap up the rankings in Google, let us know here -- that'd start a real stampede for validated HTML

dauction

9:03 pm on Jul 25, 2002 (gmt 0)

actually victor I was more concerned about my submissions to INKs ineedhits.com..I was included in the database over a month ago and have received a whopping 17 hits from them ! Using "free" web ranking (that limits 200 deep)..I am not showing up even the top 200 results..so god knows how far back it is..

I have used them for some other sites and have good results , I usually place on first or second page...

And the site is "primed" for them ...including keyword density..I emailed them and received the usual canned response .."we dont guarentee placement ..optimise your page etc"...as if I havent done this before..

So I kept checking and there is was..I hadn't closed html..but thats hard for me to beleive that could really be the problem..

Actually I am hoping it is..

just looking for some validation that yes indeed that could do it..or no way would that affect ranking?

anyone know for sure?

Ink.updates every 48 hours (supposedly) so I should know then if it has any effect ..correct ?

papabaer

9:50 pm on Jul 25, 2002 (gmt 0)

When all else is equal, the validated page should "win out" over the unvalidated. There was a good discussion regarding Google and <!doctype> not long ago. Again, one of the obvious advantages to serving spiders valid code is the assurance that they will be able to eat a complete meal.

Without a doubt, other factors are involved - but, do you want to chance stopping a spider cold because of an omitted tag or a typo? Validate.

Mohamed_E

10:10 pm on Jul 25, 2002 (gmt 0)

Valid HTML is a "good thing", but a missing </html> strikes me as being about the easiest error to correct. Surely the end-of-file will cause any software (other than a validator!) to close any open tags. I suggest that you look elsewhere for the cause of the poor ranking.

Visit Thailand

12:33 am on Jul 26, 2002 (gmt 0)

Agree with Mohammed. Have noticed that even some validators do not even pick up on a missing </html>

papabaer

1:33 am on Jul 26, 2002 (gmt 0)

Without a doubt there are many possible reasons and combinations of reasons that affect spidering and possible indexing. But here is the point: when some webmasters, in their struggle to achieve the perfect balance of keyword density and location, inbound and outbound links and ultimate relevancy think they have done all they could do, only to be foiled when a spider choked on a coding error, then they have let a very simple, very attainable, segment of their craft slip by and perhaps, ultimately defeat them. Is the extra care and effort worth it? I think so.

When you are trouble-shooting a problem, you eliminate all the obvious possibilities, get the simple stuff out of the way so you can concentrate on the real issues: valid pages are easy to write, spiders won't choke on them, and you can concentrate, without distraction, on the more difficult issues of SEO.

dauction

2:56 am on Jul 26, 2002 (gmt 0)

well papabaer..it looks like that probably isn't the problem anyways..but I do see you point ..validate first...

Just extremely frustrating when you are PAYING for inclusion ...you are optimised and they dont even let your site get on the radar screen!

I may de-activate the site from ineedhits.com for a few days and then "re-submit it" see if that makes a difference..

rewboss

8:36 am on Jul 26, 2002 (gmt 0)

I've noticed that a missing </html> tag will cause a browser to forever wait, as evidenced by the mouse-pointer turning into an egg-timer. I doubt if it will affect rankings, but it might mystify one or two sharp-eyed surfers who may be wondering how long it will be before the rest of the page loads.