For sure your layout should be tableless unless you are entering tabular data. Your HTML sheet that the spider sees should contain minimal markup, and efficent markup so it can sift through it quickly picking up what your page is about without clutter and markup that is unrelated to your page. Title of page should always be in heading tags. Embolden text you want to emphaisise to the SE. XHTML Valid, so that your page passes through a validator. Minimal efficent markup is key, and correct use of elements, remember the spider is a computer not a human being!
The old tables vs. CSS debate again. As far as the spider is concerned, it can read either and has no problems stripping the content out of the page. From How can I create a Google-friendly site?: There is nothing in the guidelines suggesting that you should not use tables. Check out Creating a Google-friendly site: Best practices for more information.
Hi I read this article on the net and it is so helpful for me. Hope it will help you. 8 Usability Check-Points You Should Be Aware Of thanks
Yes, but really tables should only be used for tabular data and not the general layout of a page. Sure it can still be stripped out of a table layout, but it's not going to be as efficent as a DIV layout. I understand that table layouts do not have a big efffect on SEO, however they are a design/CSS nightmare and not future proof, you will have to make the changeover sooner or later. Imo the begginer shouldn't even bother learning about tabular layouts, hopefully the first articles they stubmle upon are Div related layouts.
* Design semantically for humans. ie. H1 main heading, h2 page heading, h3 sub title etc - search engines will place importance of the keywords within different html tags. * Clear, logical menu structure
don't use tables, make sure the code is neat. Use good titles. If you need more advice check this guy out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0qMe7Z3EYg
I fully understand the purpose of tables. But the question was about SE friendliness, and people posted right out of the gate with the mis-guided understanding that CSS div layouts are friendlier than Table layouts. This is simply NOT true. As far as the efficiency of parsing content from either type of page is a non-issue. One only need view any page through a Lynx browser to understand how this all works -- and it happens in less than the blink of an eye.
I personally think that the use of tables just adds to the amount of code that the SE has to parse through. I'll do tables where it makes sense, but css just gives me better control. Also, don't forget the right doctype. This messes up so many people with SEO.
That is your "personal" opinion. It is an opinion that is perpetuated throughout forums all the time. Just because "you" have a problem with sifting through nested tables and understanding the content, does not mean that the spider cannot do it. The spider can do it in the blink of an eye. And Doctypes have nothing to do with SEO. You can mess them up all you want, and the results will still be the same --- CONTENT. For the final time, it is 'content' that gets indexed, not Html. Learn it, live it, breath it.
There are lot more articles published, Just go in Google and type "Search Engine Friendly Website Design Tips" You may get the lot idea, how to design and develop it.
Some thing I'll like to add to the existing: Use proper Meta Tags and unique Meta Descriptions for each page. Thats the most effective and essential for SEO. Use descriptive alt and title tags for images, flash, links. Do not use unnecessary divs. This will cause divitis. Thats all for now.
I think table or css makes no differnce for SE obvioulsy it helps we humans for maintainance and all but no differnece for SE.. Other things include good precise titile, bold h1 tags, use a href links not javascript..
Hi, If you want to design search engine friendly website so you should : (1)Use CSS for the layout & avoid using tables. (2)Title should always be in heading tags. (3)Logical menu structure. (4)Use a href links.