Tables vs. CSS Positioning

The use of tables vs. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) has been long debated in the world of optimization in regards to ranking performance. Yes, by utilising CSS, you can make the page itself smaller in size, thus faster to load, less surplus tags for the search engines to read, but that is all user related. The real issue lies in the rankings, not the loading.

Yes, size could be directly attributable to the ranking performance, though that then simply means that CSS does provide a ranking performance gain over tabled design, through page size, rather than just the table itself. It is all measurable in most instances and can be pin pointed to the major attributing factors through some small ongoing modifications if required.

• Ease of use, quick positioning, structured direct layout.

Table Disadvantages

• Limited structural movement and complexity limitations and nesting.

CSS Advantages

• Clean, fast loading, less page coding, and the list goes on

CSS Disadvantages

• Slower to code, limitations through columns and movement

There are clearly ups and downs to each, whether utilising tables, or tableless through CSS. The above is by no means exhaustive, simply enough to provide relevant content for this test off whether there is any significant benefit to using CSS over Tables for the purposes of ranking within the search engines.

Tables vs. CSS is copyright © 2004 SEO Testing