How to Fix Shopify SEO Problems: HTML Validation

Invalid HTML can have a negative impact on SEO in a few ways, but it's generally not a direct ranking factor itself. Here's how it can affect your website's search engine visibility:

Crawlability Issues: Search engines rely on code to understand and index your website's content. If your HTML is riddled with errors, it can make it difficult for search engine crawlers to parse and process your pages. This can lead to incomplete indexing or even exclusion from search results.
Content Inaccessibility: Severe HTML errors can prevent search engines from fully rendering or understanding your content. This means valuable information or keywords might not be accessible to crawlers, potentially hurting your ranking for relevant searches.
User Experience: Invalid HTML can lead to unexpected layouts, broken elements, or slow loading times. This creates a poor user experience, which can cause visitors to bounce back quickly. Search engines consider user experience as a ranking factor, so a high bounce rate due to technical issues can negatively impact your SEO.

However, it's important to note that:

Minor Errors Might Not Matter: Not all invalid HTML is created equal. Some minor errors or deprecated code might not significantly hinder crawlability or content accessibility. Search engines are often quite good at interpreting code with minor imperfections.
Focus on Content and Usability: Ultimately, high-quality content and a user-friendly website are more crucial for SEO than perfect HTML code.

What you should prioritize:

Valid and Clean Code: While minor errors might be okay, strive for clean and valid HTML whenever possible. It ensures smooth operation, better search engine understanding, and a positive user experience.
Fix Major Issues: Address critical errors that could significantly impact crawlability or content accessibility. Tools like the W3C validator can help identify and fix these issues.
Focus on Great Content: Don't get bogged down by achieving perfect code at the expense of creating valuable and informative content for your users.

In conclusion, while invalid HTML isn't a direct SEO penalty, it can indirectly hurt your search engine visibility by hindering crawlability and user experience. Focus on providing high-quality content and a user-friendly experience, while maintaining clean and valid code whenever possible.

HTML Validation

The SEO Shop Scanner may highlight a critical SEO problem if the HTML on your page is not valid. 

Steps to remediate HTML problems

Typically fixing this type of problem will require some light technical skills as you will be editing the Shopify theme.