Tables v CSS for SEO

[Starlight]

I have heard how using css for web page layouts is better than using tables for good search engine optimisation. I wonder if any of you can tell me what exactly it is that makes css better than tables?

I began designing my web site with table layouts, but I keep being told that they are an out of date or non-standard way of doing this But with the idea that css really can affect your search engine positioning, I think I really have to move towards css based layouts.

[Marcus]

CSS layouts are definitely better for SEO, you have much greater control over positioning of the content - this is not what helps SEO, but the fact that you can write a plain web page so that your key content is at the top IS good for search engine optimisation, then you use CSS to move it all around as you would like the viewer to see it.

You cannot do this with tables, and tables should be used for what they were designed for - tables of information (bit like spreadsheets). They work best in ordered 'tabled' layout.

CSS is usually much lighter in code and file size as well.

[Aphro]

What Marcus means there is that the search engines don't read with the css, so they only see your original document that has not been repositioned or set out with the css.

CSS layouts are better for SEO because of this capability of moving things around while maintaining the position of everything in the code. Search engines just read the content (without the tags) as it is within the code.

For example, with CSS, your header (like the banner or whatever at the top of your page) can be at the very bottom of your document, and your main text content can be at the top. You just reposition that with the relevant CSS coding.

I voted Yes.

[mbsi]

And CSS layouts are normally lighter on code. Many service providers will tell you that the savings over long periods of time are quite large and web users will experience marginally better download speeds. This is especially true where css files contain a lot of background image references since browsers cache these css fiels and the other files (like images) that they reference.

I voted for the first option as I think CSS layouts are far better for SEO, not just because of the ability to move your layout about, but because the html code is much lighter than table layouts.