Tables & Search Engines

[pagallery]

Not sure if this is the right section, but here goes.I've read some stuff about trying to optimise your site for the search engines and I think what it said was that search engine robots/spiders/ whatever looked at tables and saw all the table formatting before they got to the content.So I have tried to set up a nice looking site without using tables - I've created a Container DIV and then further DIVS within it and used FLOAT positioning. But getting the format to look right in different browsers and in different resolutions is driving me nuts. With a table I could nicely centre and %age size it so that it looks OK regardless of resolution. Presumably, it would look OK in the 4 main browsers as well.My question is: how much of an advantage with the search engines is it to have non-table content as opposed to table content?

[real_illusions]

tableless content is more upto date, a div and css based design is 'better'. But, a good coder can produce a search engine friendly site with tables, where as someone who cant code can produce a search engine non-friendly site without tables.Thats how i see it anwyay.I'm not sure of the exact details of why div's and css is prefered over tables for search engines, as the search engines like to keep how they index pages a secret. But, generally, if you use div's and css correctly, in conjunction with other search engine optimisation techniques, then your site will rank highly.

[boen_robot]

The reason search engines index CSS based layouts higherly is because of the semantics of the elements. <table> is used for tables and <p> for example is used for a paragraph of text. A search engine would expect the user to look for a piece of text, not a data that's part of a table, so it gives it a higher priority.CSS based sites also load quicker because of what you mentioned: The whole table is downloaded before it's content is displayed.CSS sites are also easier to develop on multiple devices. Once you develop your main stylesheet, developing a printer friendly version would be a breeze. Want your site on phones and PDAs? Nothing easier then that.There are also accessability benefits, but they probably aren't going to impress you as a developer.It it's only for SEO, consider using <h*> elements properly for headings and keywords and use them at the appropriate levels. Don't overuse them as well.

[holmedwa04]

Wow, I never know that at all, I have two top listings on Yahoo search engine, one of my index, and one of my sitemap but you have to search for...shapemakingclub or"shape making club"So I am not sure how many people get to it and also if you search for it on google, with either of the two searchs above I get lots of top listings, but they are not direct links.So, I soppose if you know about Shape Making Club then you would get to the site, but otherwise you wouldn't.It doesn't really bother me though, because I get over 500 visits every week anyay, then again, I can't be sure though, because some ********* in my school find it funny to hold down the refreesh button. And what is even more annoying even during holidays they still find the time to do it!It really does make me ask myself if they have a life or not, but the hit count does seem to be getting to a more reasonable number.The only wat that I can thinnk of getting around it is by recording hits from users IP addresses but then again if they have a dynamic IP and also, I can't change the way BTConnect record my hits.