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  4. Is DOCTYPE important for SEO?

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Is DOCTYPE important for SEO?

Intermediate & Advanced SEO
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  • AdeLewis
    AdeLewis last edited by Dec 12, 2011, 7:04 PM

    Hello fellow Mozzers.

    I am just having a brief look at a potential clients website before speaking to them tomorrow and whilst looking at the source I noticed that they don't appear to have a clear definition for their Doctype.

    All the have at the top of each page is

    I have to admit that Doctypes aren't my strong point but I know that they are normally slightly more descriptive than this.

    Can this have any effect on rankings? or is this just an issue for W3C validation?

    Thanks ๐Ÿ™‚

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • SL_SEM
      SL_SEM last edited by Dec 12, 2011, 7:54 PM Dec 12, 2011, 7:49 PM

      If it is an HTML 5 page that should be just fine as it is the HTML 5 doctype tag.

      Check out the info here: http://www.w3schools.com/html5/tag_doctype.asp

      It might cause trouble with really old browsers, but if they have that going I would hope they have already thought about the reasons for and against using it ๐Ÿ™‚

      EDIT: even better link: http://www.w3.org/TR/html5-diff/#doctype

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