I read often that CSS is better for search engines in that it moves a lot of code off the page (style Sheets) and that the costent of the page can be moved around to have the most relevant content nearer the top of the page.
I was having a discussion with another webmaster today who mentioned he had launched three sites at the same time (all different). Two were tables layout, the third was 100% CSS.
Within a few weeks the tables sites were indexed by Google, but now, months afterwards, the CSS site still has not been indexed, despite all other aspects of promotion being identical.
My experience validates his experience - with Google.
I recoded a site in CSS. From the day of launch this site has perfomed poorly in Google results (from being in the top five results to being far enough down to not be worth being there). I have also launched two other sites in CSS and again, one, approaching three months, still has not been discovered by Google despite quality inbound links, DMOZ etc.
So here is my claim - tables are still better for creating sites in - stylesheets are ok for font formatting, but not for layout if you want Google to notice you.
I was having a discussion with another webmaster today who mentioned he had launched three sites at the same time (all different). Two were tables layout, the third was 100% CSS.
Within a few weeks the tables sites were indexed by Google, but now, months afterwards, the CSS site still has not been indexed, despite all other aspects of promotion being identical.
My experience validates his experience - with Google.
I recoded a site in CSS. From the day of launch this site has perfomed poorly in Google results (from being in the top five results to being far enough down to not be worth being there). I have also launched two other sites in CSS and again, one, approaching three months, still has not been discovered by Google despite quality inbound links, DMOZ etc.
So here is my claim - tables are still better for creating sites in - stylesheets are ok for font formatting, but not for layout if you want Google to notice you.