New Retail Site Design, New SEO

[Tonearm]

I'm finally getting around to finishing my site's new design. I know I'll catch some flack for this, but I'm not using CSS at all. I'll probably use it in the next re-design.

I've got the following bookmarked:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[webmasterworld.com...]

[webmasterworld.com...]

Has anything changed since mid-2003 when these threads were started that I need to know about?

Other than the page title, inbound link text, and meta tags, I see my keywords coming from these areas:

1. internal navigation links
2. thumbnail-type product displays with the product's title on category pages and promos
3. product and category descriptions on the product and category pages

I would like to be able to use tables to control the layout of the above as it will give me much more precise control than p and br. I could use header tags inside the tables to designate important text. Will using tables for layout instead of p and br hurt my SE rankings? I understand that tables require more code which dilutes keywords density, but don't the SEs would know the difference between content and HTML tags?

[edited by: Marcia at 8:07 pm (utc) on Mar. 14, 2004]
[edit reason] Made links clickable. [/edit]

[John_Caius]

CSS is a good thing if you don't know how best to lay out the page. <div>s are just as accurate as tables in laying out content. Plus code bloat is hugely reduced:

Small file size = fast loading = happy customers

Small file size = lower bandwidth charges = happy bank manager

The best way to go would be with a <div> based layout with all the styling in an external stylesheet - that way the user only downloads it once. You can style the H1 tags to fit in with the theme of your page rather than being overpowering. You can also put your content higher up in the code, which seems to work better from an SEO point of view.

Remember that Google doesn't read meta keyword tags - hasn't done for a long time.

Here are a couple of handy links if you've not done any CSS before:
[webmasterworld.com...]
Google Directory - CSS Tuturials [directory.google.com]

:)

[edited by: Marcia at 8:32 pm (utc) on Mar. 14, 2004]
[edit reason] Fixed sideways scroll for 800x600 resolution. [/edit]

[Marcia]

>>I know I'll catch some flack for this, but I'm not using CSS at all.

No, you will not catch flack for it; plenty of people are still using plain vanilla HTML for one reason or another. It does make life easier to use CSS for the major text formatting on a site, such as H1, H2 and regular text, simply because it's a time saver, but not everyone is a CSS "purist" and frankly, to have to make a separate style designation instead of a font tag for an occasional oddball text formatting can be an unnessary time-eater.

Tables don't give a problem unless there are multiple, multiple nested tables. And if the code is a bit heavier it only affects the text-to-code ratio, it's got nothing to do with the keyword density of the page which would be calculated without the code.

Algos do change over time and there are variations from one engine to another, so it's a good idea to stay on top of it. The easiest way to put it is that what carries a lot of weight at one time may carry less weight at some future date - and the reverse.

Though details of SEO will vary, the basic principles of what goes into a good site remain the same over time.