Google Adds New Help Document
Google adds ‘Valid page metadata’ in the help document. It contains information regarding how Google handles HTML which is inconsistent or invalid and has issues related to invalid markup on the pages.
Also, Google updated the ‘Title links’ help document and added a new part in the troubleshooting section called the ‘No clear main headline’.
You can find the official document here
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/valid-html
Valid Page Metadata
The new help document says that using valid metadata on the pages makes sure that Google processes the HTML markup on your web pages.
Google tries to understand the HTML as per the HTML standards even though it may not be valid or consistent. But it will affect your website as the errors in the markup can cause problems in Google Search.
For example, If you use an invalid element in the head then Google will ignore the elements that appear after that invalid element. This has got to do with the schema markup or the structured data but it applies to the other areas as well where Google may not understand an element in your HTML.
Google said that you should use valid elements in the head. Valid metadata should be used in the following:
- Link
- Title
- Meta
- Script
- Style
- Base
- Noscript
- Template
The following are invalid elements which should not be used in the head because Google does not support these elements:
- img
- Iframe
- Other HTML elements
Title link
The ‘Title link’ help document was first published in October, 2021. First the sub-heading ‘Avoid the common issues with title elements’ was renamed to ‘Troubleshooting common issues’ by Google. It also added a new section called the “No clear main headline”.
When you use more than one headline that is large and prominent then it is not clear which text is the main headline for that page. For example, if you use the two or more headlines with the same styling and heading elements.
If Google Search finds that there are more than one headlines which are large and prominent then it may use the first headline as text for the title link. You should make sure that your headline is prominent & distinctive than the other text on the page and stands out on the page. For example, you can use a larger font for the headline, put the headline in the first H1 element on the page and more.
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