Whitespace and the SE's

[madmatt69]

So is it beneficial (at least somewhat) to compress your html files so that the coding is generally on one line, remove the formatting and spaces etc from a search engine promotino point of view?

Sure you can save a few KB on filesize, but I'm just wondering if having code all condensed has any value in the eye's of the SE's.

For example, I noticed on google that they have a lot of code all on one line.

Anyhow, just looking for any thoughts / comments.

Thanks!

[mack]

I think with Google use that approach to save bandwidth and reduce page load time. It may only be a few kb's but think of that after a few million page views, it all adds up.

In terms of search engines, im not convinced it will make a lot of difference. They will read the code. So long as the code works correctly when compressed it will read exactly the same as it would before it was compressed.

Mack.

[madmatt69]

Yeah that's what I figured.

But then by virture of having a smaller file size, it reduces your code to content ratio (if only a little) and that may help ever so slightly.

Either way - I removed all the whitespace, it'll save me bandwidth, and I'll let you know if it made any noticeable changes on the se's :)