A recent discussion on Google’s Search Off the Record podcast challenges long-held assumptions about technical SEO, revealing that most top-ranking websites don’t use valid HTML.
Despite these imperfections, they continue to rank well in search results.
Search Advocate John Mueller and Developer Relations Engineer Martin Splitt referenced a study by former Google webmaster Jens Meiert, which found that only one homepage among the top 200 websites passed HTML validation tests.
Mueller highlighted:
“0.5% of the top 200 websites have valid HTML on…
lockquote>

![[CITYPNG.COM]White Google Play PlayStore Logo – 1500×1500](https://startupnews.fyi/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/CITYPNG.COMWhite-Google-Play-PlayStore-Logo-1500x1500-1-630x630.png)