Optimizing Tables for Engine Submission

Can I fix this problem?

[thebus36]

I have been trying to find a solution to fix a probably common problem with tables on my site. It appeares the engines see my navigation links table first instead of the "main body" of the site. This does not look good when it appears in listings nor do I think it will index nearly as well. How do I get it to "see" my body pages first?

Thanks!

-Chris

[edited by: pageoneresults at 3:48 pm (utc) on Aug. 17, 2004]
[edit reason] Removed URI Reference - Please Refer to TOS [/edit]

[netmar]

Search engine spiders crawl from top to bottom and from left to right. Try using buttons (images) instead on those text links in your menu. Search engines can read links they find in images (unless it's scripted) and this way, irrelevant words you have on those links won't be seen by the spider. You can use keywords in text links somewhere else.

This is just one little thing to improve your website. A lot more could be done. Good luck.

[yowza]

Bad suggestion Netmar. You want to keep those text links just the way they are. What you want to do is use the table trick. Try this search [google.com...]

[netmar]

Well yowza, I don't know where his link went to but there was a link to his website so my comment was based on the words showing on the menu links, which were not really good keywords. Of course you can add some table tricks but in my opinion, those words shouldn't be crawled at all! ;)

[thebus36]

Can ya help me out with some better keywords?

Im am (obviously) new at this and am trying t overcome the learning curve.

I will attempt to so the table trick and see what happens.

-Chris

[netmar]

Well WordTracker is a good tool to find keywords and combinations. Keywords must reflect what your website is all about though. I made that comment cause the text you had on your links wasn't related to the subject of your website. As exemple, a link saying "Click here" won't do any good to the keywords you want to rank in the search engine. You can still use a <title></title> tag in your link but it would be better using a keyword in your link.

[yowza]

Yes, I saw the URL, that is why I knew that the thing he was wanting to do was the table trick. I saw the keywords as well. In my opinion it is always better to use text than images for your menu. It takes less code and you get search engine credit for anchor text. Yes, he may want to use different keywords, but that wasn't the question.

[netmar]

As far as I know, he also said it didn't look good when it appeared in listings. So even with the table trick, it might still appear in the listing, which I was trying to help with but oh well, you seem to know better. ;-P

[drbrain]

Search engines use anchor text to help determine what a site is about. If you use just images you miss out that helpful boost.

[greenleaves]

How inportant is it to use the table trick?

[skunker]

I did a bit of research and there seems to be a bit of browser incompatibility using the table trick, especially with older browsers.

Not sure I am sold on it yet....

[yowza]

If you already have a table layout, I don't think there are any other options than the table trick, short of a larger redevelopment. I guess you could use absolute positioning to place a div on top of the table, although I think a redevelopment would be better. I would have used a CSS-P layout, if I wanted my menu to appear below my body text (although there are browser-compatibility issues with this also). In thebus36's case, he already has a table layout so his best option is the table trick.

[greenleaves]

But how important is it really?
I would not give up my compatibility for this. I mean, plenty of sites rank well without the table trick.

What is your take, table trick VS compatibility, who wins?

[deejay]

I don't see where there's an issue of compatibility with table tricking.

It's a perfectly normal table - if the browser can handle it the standard way, it can handle it the 'tricked' way. After all, it's only a matter of which cell you choose to put your menu contents in.

...and for the removal of doubt, that's a clear "yes, use table trick" vote.