How important is it for CSS to be clean?

[strugglingnovice]

Despite getting my cart built, I'm still a TOTAL rank amateur with coding, have worked with my site for what seems like a lifetime, almost ready to go live and I'm getting validation errors. My question is this - if I don't clean up these errors will it have an affect on how Google adds my site. Everything works fine with the errors, and I'm sure you're all thinking, why don't you just clean them up. The reason is that I don't know how. I'm so sorry to keep asking all these questions, but I look at these errors and I'm just lost as to how to fix them, but of course I will wade through it somehow if you all tell me I have to.

Would someone tell me if I have to figure out how to change all of this, or if it matters.

I just don't want to screw up SEO, I've come so far.

Thanks again for helping me, here are the validation errors -

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=ht...Inline&group=0

http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/v...rning=&lang=en

You're probably also thinking, how did this woman ever get this far and do so much customizing without a basic understanding of css/php, and to be perfectly honest, I don't know how I've done it. Lots and LOTS of trial and error. Maybe it's a Christmas Miracle, you think?

[stevesh]

I don't know much about miracles, but I remember your site from the beginning, and the result looks mostly like you've done a lot of hard work. Great job.

The four remaining errors you have look pretty easy to fix. You'll need to find the code the validator is talking about, and in the first three instances, change the tags (IMG SRC and ALT) to lower case. The Developers Tools Kit has a 'case' option, so you could use that to find the code.

The fourth refers to the unescaped ampersand in 'Shipping & Returns in your EZ page footer links. Change the title of that page to Shipping & Returns and it should be good.

schoolboy will say it if I don't - don't fret about these little details any longer - take the site live and start making money. You can always fix the little stuff as you go.

[strugglingnovice]

stevesh, i remember you SO well, you've helped me so many times. i've been working on this on and off for a year and a half, a ridiculous amount of time!

i'll do what you're telling me, I'm assuming that my css errors won't be a problem for the search engine robots.

good hearing from you again, thanks for the fast reply. i can do what you told me, i always just need some direction to get me started.

[schoolboy]

schoolboy will say it if I don't - don't fret about these little details any longer - take the site live and start making money. You can always fix the little stuff as you go.

I'll say it even if Steve DOES say it...

The main reason you are doing all of this is to make some money for yourself. So all you really need to be sure of, is that everything FUNCTIONS properly.

It's unlikely that people will arrive at your site and go...


... just because you are using a shade of green that they may not like very much.

Start selling ASAP...

[strugglingnovice]

That's what I was hoping to hear, SchoolBoy, but being the novice that I am, I didn't know how important it is when it all doesn't validate and I just wanted to check with all of you to make sure that Google wouldn't flag me for validation errors.

Everything appears to be functioning okay, I'm just nervous because I've never done this before.

Thanks for your words of wisdom, and have a nice evening...

[strugglingnovice]

Stevesh or Schoolboy, would you mind taking a look at my site and telling me if things are in order, other than those validation errors.

I have some work to do tomorrow with pricing, some of it isn't corrected yet, and I have to work with my freight, but I'm hoping that once I get that in order that I can go live.

I think I have all my urls named properly, everything is working in Webmaster and Analytics, I do, however wonder if I need some exclusions in the robots.txt, because I'm not disallowing anything at this point.

And I also am wondering if my site title could be more relevant - right now my title is Red Kap Workwear, Trusted Seller with Best Online Pricing

Thanks again for all your help, I hope I'm not being a nuisance.

[RescoCCC]

I didn't know how important it is when it all doesn't validate and I just wanted to check with all of you to make sure that Google wouldn't flag me for validation errors

Many of the largest, most trafficked sites on the web have validation errors.

All too often we are inclined to sacrifice the good on the altar of the perfect. Perfect doesn't exist, and your site is better than just good.

[strugglingnovice]

Thank you so much RescoCCC. I've worked on this so long, it's a relief to hear people that know what they're talking about telling me that it looks good. I just sit here plugging away, with no way of knowing if others think it's a decent site, and not knowing whether I will ever get orders. My hope is that I won't be buried in page 1078 in Google rank or worse, but high enough up that people will find me. Time will tell.

[schoolboy]

Very attractive site... Very neatly done - perfect for the products you are selling. The low, neutral tones of the site's colours don't "fight" with the colours of your garments which (by their very nature and purpose) are quite "bland".

So you have done this correctly... The products stand out very well, and have been beautifully photographed.

On the ATTRIBUTES...

You should add another option VALUE to the attributes, titled "Please make a selection...", make it DISPLAY ONLY, and make it the DEFAULT value.

The REASON for this is to "force" customers to make a choice. Right now, I can add a product to the cart without having to make any selections. What is added to the cart will show whatever attribute was in the product info page at the time.

By creating a display only option VALUE (Please make a selection...), the system will not allow a shopper to add a product to the cart UNTIL they have chosen an appropriate colour and size. An alert message comes up.

Your Sizing Charts link takes people to another site. Rather bring these charts into an EZ-Page. It's confusing when I get there... I don't see any link back to what I was doing.

Shipping charges... I don't see any rates appear when I click "Estimate Shipping". Are you going to use UPS module?

You seem to have successfully installed a URL re-write module. In general, I am opposed to these modules as they don't serve any useful purpose for SEO, and they can do more harm than good. Search engines actually prefer that the dynamic link is retained. HOWEVER... as your site is functioning DON'T TAMPER WITH THE URL MODULE. It appears to have been installed correctly, and is doing its job.

You may need to watch for Google seeing duplicate content. This can be one of the downsides of using these URL rewrite modules. Much will depend on how you have set it up.

Buy the MagicZoom license so the "Upgrade" message disappears from your zoomed images.

While you have SSL, you aren't telling your shoppers that you have SSL.

A sidebox with the SSL Seal is a very valuable marketing tool... It tells people your site is officially "secure" when it comes to transmitting data.

[RescoCCC]

While you have SSL, you aren't telling your shoppers that you have SSL.

A sidebox with the SSL Seal is a very valuable marketing tool... It tells people your site is officially "secure" when it comes to transmitting data.

Very valuable advice. I created a sidebox titled "Secure Shopping" with my site seals in it, and located it in the top spot on the right.