Comments on: Does using CSS affect SEO?

By: Scott

Scott — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 09:19:43 +0000

Google ranks table-based sites just as well as CSS-based sites.

It’s the content that counts, and they do not care how the layout is achieved.

See their video and bust the myth…
http://morechristlike.com/which-is-more-seo-friendly-css-or-tables/

By: web design resources

web design resources — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 03:13:05 +0000

hello. i’d like to ask you something.
if im using H1 tag but adjust the size and style with css, H1 will be same as SEO ?
in most cases, i want to modify the size of H1 using CSS. so is that a problem?
thanks

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:43:40 +0000

The article was quite interesting and sounds rational to me but I come away with open questions. Supposedly search engines look at headings for example with H1 tags. With CSS if the engine only read the markup it would never know that the heading exists. Search engines care about the relative position of certain words. Without analyzing CSS the search engine would have no way to know where anything is positioned on the page (to an extent it could possibly figure out high vs. low, but even then with the right CSS everything could easily be upside down). So these examples (and there could be several more) make me think that CSS could possibly have a Negative impact on rankings depending on how heavily some of the things I mentioned are weighted.

This is not a theoretical question. I’m trying to figure out right now how to put keywords in a title but I don’t think Google will know it is a title because its a 100% CSS webpage.

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:41:09 +0000

Nice article, and you are right about CSS not working in older browsers, and there is always issues with IE and Firefox displaying content differently.

By: hm2k

hm2k — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:59:25 +0000

Wow, did you even read the whole article?

1. Search engines are backwards compatible, thus tables don’t matter.
2. Not using tables forces you to use schematic markup. Better code can mean better search results.
3. Schematic markup helps SEO, not CSS. CSS styles the markup.

Just because they are established doesn’t mean that common sense doesn’t over-ride, further more, their choice of wording isn’t exactly in-depth.

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:57:22 +0000

Interesting.. you strongly claim css will not help with seo, then you reference “Why tables for layouts are stupid”.. On page 3 they say that css WILL “get you better search engine results”. I don’t know either way but Seybold is very well established and I don’t think they would say that if it were false.

By: Darren - SEO Company

Darren - SEO Company — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 12:43:16 +0000

Hi Thanks for the article, i am going to reference this in my blog on the same subject. What do you think of the idea that another benefit of using CSS and DIVs is that you can manipulate the order that text appears to the search engines by positioning elements on the page so that all your keyword rich content is not preceded by useless links that might dilute the potency of the first paragraph and H1 tag.