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Are html errors a problem?

by katied772
7 replies
My boss was told his website had a number of html errors. His web company said they were probably due to pages that were no longer there but there was no problem with that. I am not a techie person but was wondering if it could be a problem. If the page is not there, couldn't a customer still somehow end up on the page and get a blank page, with no direction to take from there? If that's the case, at the very least it would seem unprofessional and possibly cause him to simply leave the site.

Thanks.
#errors #html #problem
  • Profile picture of the author Prateek Dwivedi
    Yes, this may hurt you in many ways. As you mentioned, it may create an unprofessional impact on your visitors if they land on those spots.
    Moreover, Search Engines like clean sites. So, it may hurt you in SEO too.
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    • Profile picture of the author katied772
      Originally Posted by Prateek Dwivedi View Post

      Yes, this may hurt you in many ways. As you mentioned, it may create an unprofessional impact on your visitors if they land on those spots.
      Moreover, Search Engines like clean sites. So, it may hurt you in SEO too.
      The site does tend to be slow sometimes but it is also very picture heavy.

      I see the extra html as sort of a traffic jam, making the trip a longer process.
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  • Profile picture of the author greenleaf5
    Broken links affect search engine rankings. It's better to remove all the hypertext that point to the pages that once existed. Users can try to land on a non-existent page directly if they know the URL. They will, however, get a "Page not found" message. In such a case the user may leave the site, without exploring the content that's there.
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    • Profile picture of the author katied772
      Originally Posted by greenleaf5 View Post

      Broken links affect search engine rankings. It's better to remove all the hypertext that point to the pages that once existed. Users can try to land on a non-existent page directly if they know the URL. They will, however, get a "Page not found" message. In such a case, the user may not have a positive experience with the site.
      Is there any other way (besides knowing the direct link) for a customer to land on a no-existent page? I guess there could still be a link somewhere from another page to it. If the excess html is not removed, could they just put in a re-direct or a link from it to somewhere else so the customer wouldn't be lost?

      It just seemed like a wrong answer to me when the web company said it doesn't affect the site.
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by katied772 View Post

        Is there any other way (besides knowing the direct link) for a customer to land on a no-existent page? I guess there could still be a link somewhere from another page to it. If the excess html is not removed, could they just put in a re-direct or a link from it to somewhere else so the customer wouldn't be lost?
        Lloyd gave you the answer to this one. A '404 page' is the page served when the server can't find the page being requested. It's also called a "File not found" error.

        Rather than trying to maintain an up-to-date navigation, though, I usually offer basic navigation plus a search box.

        Originally Posted by katied772 View Post

        It just seemed like a wrong answer to me when the web company said it doesn't affect the site.
        At best, it was unprofessional. They should have taken the time to at least explain what the errors were, what that meant, and why they didn't affect the site.

        [Side note to Lloyd: I don't think the validation organizations are "behind the times", they just have different priorities...]
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  • Profile picture of the author Lloyd Buchinski
    I create my own 404 pages. Just include the full site navigation (totally up to date) so the person can get where they want to go. Throw in a bit of humor, a couple of things for them to click on, and you have a nice 404 page.

    That's for the links that don't go to valid pages part of your problem. For other html errors, if they don't affect something on the page, I don't worry much about them. Most Amazon ads have stuff that the validators don't like. Some of Google's pages have over a hundred invalid comments. The validators are just behind the times of the sites that are getting things done.
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    Do something spectacular; be fulfilled. Then you can be your own hero. Prem Rawat

    The KimW WSO

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  • Profile picture of the author alexgold87
    HTML errors can increase website's loading time. And this will affect on your search engines positions. In official Google booklet is written that website should be loaded in 2 sec or less. Another way you will find your website on page 15
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    Pinghall - Real-Time Website Monitor.
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