Empty space in my html and the google spider

[ifish]

I have a friend whose site was built using a free web developemnt software, site studio, provided by his host. The features aren't bad- you can create a decent looking site, but obviously, the level of customization and the cleanliness of the code leave a lot to be desired. So- the html code generated by this software places a TON of white space between the top and the actual body of the page, interspersed with comment tags letting someone know that there's a template in use. it's a hundred or so lines be fore you even get to theheaders. Does this matter to the google spider? does it like/dislike empty space or is it moot? I know text positioning and format on a page (even within a line) can affect it's performance in ranking performance. does the white space/positioning in the code matter as the itsy-bitsy google spider crawls down the website?

[Alan Perkins]

Having the white space could make a tiny difference. It sounds like it's not worth worrying about in this case.

[highman]

I have moved this thread as it applies to all spiders not just google.

To answer your question the whitespace will not present a major problem to spiders, however, the cleaner the code the quicker the spider can get to your content, so removing the whitespace is a good thing to do, it also reduces the page size (k) which is an added bonus

[ifish]

Wow- i thought i'd lostmy mind. made the post and couldn't find it. it's been a long morning. anyway, thanks for the input. i assumed cleaner is better but since changes may not be possible i am happy to hear that it shouldn't adversely affect us.

have a good day.