How to make Blogger-generated (X)HTML code valid?

[alibasbas]

For you guys who use Blogger, have you noticed that the (X)HTML generated by it is not valid according to The W3C Markup Validation Service? In fact, even The Google Official Blog (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/) spits out errors when tested.

Which brings me to my question: how can the users of Blogger make it generate valid (X)HTML code? What needs to be changed in the template to make it error-free?

[verom]

It would be a good idea to ask them

[alibasbas]

It would be a good idea to ask them

Ask who? The owners of Blogger, Google? Heck, even their own blog is invalid (X)HTML!

The reason why I want it to produce valid (X)HTML code is for SEO purposes. From what I've heard, Those who have valid (X)HTML code scores better in search engines compared with invalid one.

[verom]

if they have the same error there is nothing you can do...i dont think they let you edit code if they do. Replace a sample pages code with a valid code to see if it is caused the core or fronted.

[alibasbas]

if they have the same error there is nothing you can do...i dont think they let you edit code if they do. Replace a sample pages code with a valid code to see if it is caused the core or fronted.

I know it's possible since I've read a part regarding the said topic on a SitePoint book a long time ago from the library. If I'm not mistaken, it's from SitePoint's Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way Using HTML and CSS.

The point is that it is possible. How? That's what I'm trying to find out. Any mods or power users who want to shed light on this topic?

[Dan Grossman]

There's no inherent search benefit to proper markup. Search spiders are perfectly capable of crawling and parsing websites with markup as poor as Google's own. They're out to index the entire web, even pages made before current standards existed.

If you write in HTML4+ and CSS rather than using inline stylistic tags and tables for layout as everyone used to, you can see some benefit from more of your page text being near the top of the page and in the first X bytes of the file. But that's really not all that significant and perfectly possible without anything validating as well.

If your page is written so poorly that it only renders in Internet Explorer, then fixing the errors so that other browsers can render the page correctly can have indirect effects on your search ranks. A growing portion of internet users use alternative browsers, and they're not likely to link to your site or tell friends about it if it doesn't display right on their systems. That's lost opportunities for traffic and links that could be helping.

[alibasbas]

@Dan Grossman: So (X)HTML code validation is overrated? Even SitePoint's books promote valid (X)HTML code.

[Dan Grossman]

SitePoint's books promote best practices as they should. There are many benefits to writing valid markup. I'm just saying the SEO benefit is not the most significant one.