Search engines have to be able to understand and read the HTML of web pages so they can rank them in the SERPs and match them against search phrases. If the code includes errors, the search engines might not be able to read the page and all that well crafted content and link building can go to waste.

This is particularly important for dynamic database driven sites like blogs and directories, where the same error can be repeated on hundreds of pages.

These days the search engines are can deal with quite a few validation errors, but is it worth the risk? The code of his web pages is one thing a webmaster has complete control over, so it is worth making sure they are error free and as well optimised as possible.

The W3C HTML Validator is the place to go to check a page. Popular HTML editors such as Dreamweaver usually have built in validation tools and you can also find some good add-ons for FireFox that do the job.

This is pretty basic stuff, but it is surprising how many webmasters forget this (even owners of bigger sites).

Search engines interpret the non-www version of your site’s URL (http://website.com) as a different page to the www version (http://www.website.com). This means that links to your site can be split between the two versions and can also effect the accuracy of web statistics.

This re-write condition for an Apache .htaccess file creates a permanent redirect from the non-www version to the www version:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^website\.co\.uk
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.website.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]</pre>

If there are no other rewrite rules in the .htaccess file, the rewrite engine will need to be turned on using this line before the above commands:

RewriteEngine On

A quick reminder about the Best of the Web directory promotional offer, (15% off all new directory submissions and sponsorship advertising) is over at the end of this month.

Use the promo code: WIN10K

Search engine optimisation is a subject made for cynics and skeptics.

I read a few SEO blogs and sometimes wonder about the motivation behind some posts.

I mean, if someone publishes something really controversial (or even misleading), it’s likely to generate a lot of links and references to it (good and bad), and therefore help the site’s ranking.You need to be careful not to cross the threshold from healthy skepticism to paranoia, but it is a good idea not to believe everything you read about SEO.

It seems Google is just finishing off another much anticipated PageRank (PR)  update.

This time though, they seem to be following through with their threats to penalise sites that have sold links. Naturally, this has effected the sites buying links from them.

It looks like Google have done this by manually reducing the toolbar PR of guilty sites.  Here’s a list.

Directories have been hit as well. Avivadirectory.com, alivedirectory.com and bigweblinks.com have all had their PR dropped from 6 or 7 to 4 and internal pages de-indexed. This must be for buying links rather than selling them, since paying for a ‘review’ is supposed to be OK.

(It’s interesting to note that the PR of phplinkdirectory.com has only dropped from 7 to 6, even though the vast majority of links to it are ‘low quality’ footer links from directories using the script. This indicates a change in Google’s algorithm rather than the hand edit suffered by the directories.)

I run a niche directory that has suffered a little, it’s PR has dropped from 4 to 2. It seems a little unfair to penalise me for investing in my site, but hey… who am I to judge the mighty Google? My directory is still doing OK in the search engine results so I’m not too bothered.

What’s all this mean? Google are destroying PageRank as a measuring of site quality and trust.