html table trick

[magicman]

Hi all,

I'm new at SEO work and I'm wondering if anyone can tell me step-by-step how the table trick works and where the coding is placed on the page.

[Bolotomus]

Huh?! WHAT table trick? A trick to accomplish what?

[highman]

Is this [delorie.com] what you mean ?

[mark_roach]

I think magicman is probably refering to using a table so that the code for a left hand side menu appears after main body of the text. I am sure this has come up before, but I can't find in the forums.

Probably goes something like this:

<table>
<tr>
<td>
1x1 spacer gif
</td>
<td rowspan=2>
main page text
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
menu
</td>
</tr>
</table>

I could be way off base though.

[bill]

We discussed the old table trick in this thread [webmasterworld.com].

[edited by: tedster at 4:17 am (utc) on Dec. 3, 2004]

[ggrot]

or put your navbar on the right side. thats what i do. people read left to right...id rather them see the page content THEN the navigation.

[magicman]

I Would like to say a big thank you
for helping me guys!

[Bolotomus]

Ahhhhh.... very interesting. However, I hate it. Rowspan?! Yuck!

I am skeptical of the premise that the search engine is better off reading the body of the page before the navigation elements instead of after.

I think it depends on the site, what kind of searches you are expecting and optimizing for, and what your navigation area looks like.

Bolot