Had an interesting discussion today with a fellow webmaster & friend. He mentioned that he really didn’t feel the need to get into CSS, as it seemed just like tables, and was a bit of a learning curve just for that, seeing as how he knew tables pretty well.

In some respects he is right, however CSS is much more than simply positioning. It is the controlling force behind the styles on your site, and if you are good at it, it is not even on the page itself. Least the code isn’t, it is a simple reference to the style sheet itself. Everything else is just a ‘div‘ with your content.

Why is it important?

The less jumble you have on a web page, the easier it is for the Search Engine’s to crawl your page. To read the text, the content, and award you a good mark. Instead of being confused and perhaps missing something, that if it saw, would boost your rankings.

That is why CSS. 

It really is the way things operate today. Look at Blogs. If you really want a good theme, it is going to come down to the style sheet used by the theme, to lay out the portions of the entire blog. Well, it is that way for a site too, if you want it to be.

It took me some time to learn, but I love it. I use CSS strictly, and no tables what so ever in my site designs. I am not as advanced as I’d like to be, because when I am, then maybe I can design my own Blog Theme, that suits my needs. It is also cheaper to do myself, than pay someone else to do. See, I know what I want, and if I am doing it, well, then if it sucks, it is my fault, and I am not out the cash. Call me cheap.

There is also the Search Engines to consider. The easier I make my pages to crawl, the more actual text I can use. The spiders aren’t being inundated with a ton of outside crap, to wade through. Right now, I am not close to achieving that, but hey, I am slow as well as Blond. Check out the two part article here, to get an idea of just how complex Search Engine Optimization is, and see why I am taking the time to learn CSS.

Tables are good, they have their place in web design. However, like most things, we have mis-used them or altered them for tasks they weren’t meant for. CSS helps correct that, and it gives us much more space on a web page. If page loads are a problem, as they are with graphic rich pages, CSS can cut down some of the bloating. It takes away the added code, but it also quickens a page load. Once a browser reads the style sheet, it is there.. not required to be constantly downloaded. So following pages get loaded faster.

That helps in SEO as well. 

Posted on October 1st, 2007 by Gaystoryman
Filed under: SEO Mysteries & Myths