When Google updated their Webmaster Guidelines yesterday, one of the changed was changes was around valid HTML.
Before it read, “Check for broken links and correct HTML.” and now it reads “Ensure that all links go to live web pages. Use valid HTML.” Google links the “valid HTML” to the W3C validator.
Google said in 2009 Pages That Validate Do Not Get Ranking Boost. Google said in July 2015 that Bad HTML Validation Doesn’t Hurt Rankings But Can Impact Structured Data. So that is the same point here.
John Mueller of Google explained on Twitter after being questions about the guidelines change, “Invalid HTML causes more problems now than years ago: structured data & mobile come to mind,” he said. He added “but for the most part, we just wanted to rephrase it in a .. correct way :).”
So there is no real change here from what we covered back in July.
He also covered this in more detail this morning in a Google Hangout at the 1 hour mark saying:
Here is that video:
Again, nothing new but he had to explain the wording change in the guidelines.
