Shame about the syntax errors. The deprecated font size attribute accepts a number or a percentage, it doesn’t take units. There is no size property in CSS, there’s a font-size property – but its a really bad idea to use pixels for it (http://diveintoaccessibility.org/day_26_using_relative_font_sizes.html).
Nice reading, (except for your granny, curious remark, that)
though not groundbreaking news for web designers,
as often to be found here.
More often than not, seo-required H1 tags interfere with my layout needs
so I get rid of it’s formatting entirely using margin, float and line-height.
Demo at http://www.byteshift.de/tips/get-rid-of-h1-formatting
I can’t see why it makes any difference to the search engine crawlers when they read a webpage, whether it starts with an <h1> right after the body tag. The thing is a computer right? What difference does it make to the computer if it is just looking for the <h1> tag? White space, garbage or script, what difference does it make as long as the computer recognises it isn’t <h1>?
I can see there might be a content length limit, i.e. a couple of lines.
See what I mean? That’s why it makes no sense to me to worry about having your logo JPG before your <h1> title. Or has google etc actually stated something along these lines?
Thanks for the article. Other than the grandma comment, which was rude, the article was brief but helpful. I’ve been doing SEM for years but haven’t had the opportunity to build a pure CSS-driven site yet. I’m looking forward to it, and if I need a little ammunition to convince others that it’s worthwhile, this article may help a little bit.
By the way, my grandmother at 81 is making lovely use of the web.
It’s interesting that the article doesn’t mention the (X)HTML code structure itself. For example, with the magic of CSS, I can have a left menu that actually gets coded on the page /after/ the main content, so even though my menu is entirely text-based, contains H1 tags, etc, when google spiders my page, it’ll use the beginning text – which is actually content – as the small summary in its results.
Example -> http://quotes.prolix.nu/
This site uses a tweaked version of the blue robot CSS code. Good stuff.
Copy & paste the code below to embed this comment.
Mathieu O'Dowd
Hi, i’m new to CSS layout. After 6 years of mucking up HTML, i discovered this method really recently, after being struck by espn’s site.
Not seeing any tables was a shock. This article gave me a lot of simple pieces of advice. I will source it when i try to convince the management to switch to CSS layout for our clients.
Another potential benefit for SEO of CSS design is the ability to position content in the hierarchy of the HTML in order to have the most important (keyword-rich) content at the top.
Example: the chairman wants his 500-word mission statement appear at the top of the page, with product information below it. CSS-P saves the day by allowing us to position the content that the search engines require at the top of the HTML and yet display the chairman’s waffle at the top of the displayed content.
Copy & paste the code below to embed this comment.
Deepa
After reading the article I thought that it is time to put it to the test. I proposed to my marketing team to implement across Europe and see what results we get. Will provide feedback on rankings in 1 months time.
In general terms, I’d say that the article is right, but I think that any designer hoping that his/her rankings will get a boost only because of the code/content ratio is in for some nasty surprises. It’s really one of the ranking factors, but is not by far one of the most importants.
And, of course, it’s not necessary for a web to be in XHTML+CSS to achieve that ratio, old HTML+CSS will do fine, but I agree, it’s good that these good practices gets rooted in he XHTML way of coding.
I honestly think that the amount of code does not matter as long as the site is quick loading, and has at least some amount of content to be indexed (or sufficient link popularity to not need to worry about on the page factors.)
Copy & paste the code below to embed this comment.
Monica Rotaru
VSE-Be Found was good at his time but now it is another sofware that beet him.
Advanced Web Ranking is more powerfull than Vse and more helpfull.
what can i say i hope you will like it and love it just like me.
thanks for your pacienty
67 Reader Comments
Back to the ArticleDavid Dorward
Shame about the syntax errors. The deprecated font size attribute accepts a number or a percentage, it doesn’t take units. There is no size property in CSS, there’s a font-size property – but its a really bad idea to use pixels for it (http://diveintoaccessibility.org/day_26_using_relative_font_sizes.html).
Marek Moehling
Nice reading, (except for your granny, curious remark, that)
though not groundbreaking news for web designers,
as often to be found here.
More often than not, seo-required H1 tags interfere with my layout needs
so I get rid of it’s formatting entirely using margin, float and line-height.
Demo at http://www.byteshift.de/tips/get-rid-of-h1-formatting
Adam Hardy
I can’t see why it makes any difference to the search engine crawlers when they read a webpage, whether it starts with an <h1> right after the body tag. The thing is a computer right? What difference does it make to the computer if it is just looking for the <h1> tag? White space, garbage or script, what difference does it make as long as the computer recognises it isn’t <h1>?
I can see there might be a content length limit, i.e. a couple of lines.
See what I mean? That’s why it makes no sense to me to worry about having your logo JPG before your <h1> title. Or has google etc actually stated something along these lines?
Gradiva Couzin
Thanks for the article. Other than the grandma comment, which was rude, the article was brief but helpful. I’ve been doing SEM for years but haven’t had the opportunity to build a pure CSS-driven site yet. I’m looking forward to it, and if I need a little ammunition to convince others that it’s worthwhile, this article may help a little bit.
By the way, my grandmother at 81 is making lovely use of the web.
Cheers,
Gradiva
test
test
Jiminy Christmas
Can’t believe you’d call your grandmother “dimwitted.” That’s just mean.
Justin
It’s interesting that the article doesn’t mention the (X)HTML code structure itself. For example, with the magic of CSS, I can have a left menu that actually gets coded on the page /after/ the main content, so even though my menu is entirely text-based, contains H1 tags, etc, when google spiders my page, it’ll use the beginning text – which is actually content – as the small summary in its results.
Example -> http://quotes.prolix.nu/
This site uses a tweaked version of the blue robot CSS code. Good stuff.
Mathieu O'Dowd
Hi, i’m new to CSS layout. After 6 years of mucking up HTML, i discovered this method really recently, after being struck by espn’s site.
Not seeing any tables was a shock. This article gave me a lot of simple pieces of advice. I will source it when i try to convince the management to switch to CSS layout for our clients.
mas
let’s say i don’t want to use a h1 tag, just an image? is there a way so that i still reveive good search egine results? thx
David
Another potential benefit for SEO of CSS design is the ability to position content in the hierarchy of the HTML in order to have the most important (keyword-rich) content at the top.
Example: the chairman wants his 500-word mission statement appear at the top of the page, with product information below it. CSS-P saves the day by allowing us to position the content that the search engines require at the top of the HTML and yet display the chairman’s waffle at the top of the displayed content.
Deepa
After reading the article I thought that it is time to put it to the test. I proposed to my marketing team to implement across Europe and see what results we get. Will provide feedback on rankings in 1 months time.
quino
In general terms, I’d say that the article is right, but I think that any designer hoping that his/her rankings will get a boost only because of the code/content ratio is in for some nasty surprises. It’s really one of the ranking factors, but is not by far one of the most importants.
And, of course, it’s not necessary for a web to be in XHTML+CSS to achieve that ratio, old HTML+CSS will do fine, but I agree, it’s good that these good practices gets rooted in he XHTML way of coding.
E Logo Design
You can get a good placement without using a h1, but images has nothing to do with your placement ;)
Andrew Care
You called your grandmother completely dimwitted—enough said!
Logo ontwerp
Googlebot happens to love well marked-up websites + Googlebot loves a good code to content ratio.
XHTML / CSS offers you both.
aaron wall
I honestly think that the amount of code does not matter as long as the site is quick loading, and has at least some amount of content to be indexed (or sufficient link popularity to not need to worry about on the page factors.)
Monica Rotaru
VSE-Be Found was good at his time but now it is another sofware that beet him.
Advanced Web Ranking is more powerfull than Vse and more helpfull.
what can i say i hope you will like it and love it just like me.
thanks for your pacienty