Designer and SEO question?

[ck8795]

I have a question that is for both designers and mainly those of you who's expertise is in SEO.

How bad are tables for web design?

I see alot of info about the amount of code they add and that and I get it but looking at alot of sites many are created with tables. I have been trying to use <div> but find that tables are much easier and less complicated.

Can a site built with tables still do wonders in serp's if other areas of SEO are covered well?


Thanks

[aksana]

I'm trying not to use tables, I use them only when I really need them. According to w3c standards it's better to use div tags instead tables. But if your code clean and readable you may use them without worries.

Another reason of not using of tables is that they make your site slower.

[jagan]

Hello,

Here is not doubt that TABLELESS sites or sites created with complete CSS layout permforms well in SERP's

Search engines get only text and not too much unwanted code!

[TheGooner]

I have a question that is for both designers and mainly those of you who's expertise is in SEO.

How bad are tables for web design?


I see alot of info about the amount of code they add and that and I get it but looking at alot of sites many are created with tables. I have been trying to use but find that tables are much easier and less complicated.

Can a site built with tables still do wonders in serp's if other areas of SEO are covered well?


Thanks

Hi Kaus,

Don't listen to much to the zealots that spout out so much about web coding standards and CSS etc.

Much of the speech is an attempt at eliteness or snobbiness as they are part of a small group of people that have missed the main message of the internet - it's the content of the site and not the technology or standards behind it that matter.

Do what is easiest to provide good content - do not worry about the standards zealots - it's all smoke and mirrors and has little REAL WORLD value at all.


My partner creates many pages for my site. As I said before she is not a coder but a graphics person - so she uses a $30 WYSIWYG program that creates the most awful code for humans to read - it's stuffed full of tables and tags and all sorts.

But she has just created a series of pages for Bodog for our sites that within 5 days have started in the top 20 pages on the net for bodog sportsbook - out of over 830,000 pages.

And we haven't even considered our SEO techniques on it yet !!!


Tables are fine for SEO - as long as you the right content - and it is on a website that has a relationship to that content.

[ck8795]

Thanks gooner you have just answered many questions I had about some sites that are full of everything yet rank so high. I find using divs and CSS is frustrating and one error can screw everything up real fast.


Thanks

[wagerjunction]

Gooner i wanna hire your partner -

[Renee]

Hi Kaus,

Don't listen to much to the zealots that spout out so much about web coding standards and CSS etc.

Much of the speech is an attempt at eliteness or snobbiness as they are part of a small group of people that have missed the main message of the internet - it's the content of the site and not the technology or standards behind it that matter.

Do what is easiest to provide good content - do not worry about the standards zealots - it's all smoke and mirrors and has little REAL WORLD value at all.


My partner creates many pages for my site. As I said before she is not a coder but a graphics person - so she uses a $30 WYSIWYG program that creates the most awful code for humans to read - it's stuffed full of tables and tags and all sorts.

But she has just created a series of pages for Bodog for our sites that within 5 days have started in the top 20 pages on the net for bodog sportsbook - out of over 830,000 pages.

And we haven't even considered our SEO techniques on it yet !!!


Tables are fine for SEO - as long as you the right content - and it is on a website that has a relationship to that content.

Absolutely agreed.
What would be a great idea is to enter a keyword that you're trying to rank for, and look at the first few sites and see if they use tables. My guess is that they probably do.

In my many years of web design (and I started learning when I was 13) I have never come across any site that has been penalised for using tables. Frames are another question though and my advice is to never use frames in a website because the search engines don't generally follow frame links. Flash websites are in the same category - search engine spiders can't read the content inside flash objects.

You could also head over to seochat.com where there are some SEO experts to answer your questions

Good luck!

[matted]

I don't always agree you you, Gooner, but this time you were right on. The content is what is important. I use a ton of tables, nested and otherwise. I only use CSS to do some formatting I couldn't do as easily in the table or for styles that repeat.

That said, try to organize the page such that all related content is in a single cell. Be sure your headline is in a TH tag and the actual content in the TD. Dont use tables to create paragraphs as much as format the left to right layout of the page.

[freebie]

Agree with the above...I make all my websites using tables and dont have any problems with google rankings