Is your site in CSS or table format?

@Dominique 192066 wrote:

6000 pages of nested tables – and converting them all. Same age site and a dinosaur.

Google doesn’t like nested tables.

Holy pages batman! hehe I’m sure that is a lot of work for you guys. :shots:

Looking back I’m glad that I did not grow my site as I envisioned because I’d have the same situation to deal with. Now I’m ready to go crazy with it and apply the database part.

I have to stop wasting time playing with the GUI and get it done.

@TonyM 192326 wrote:

Hi

I have been told by a “professional” website designer that Google does not like tables and sites with css are much more likely to get a higher search ranking.

Is there any evidence of this or was he just trying to get some business by charging to convert a site from tables to css? (this was for a friend of mine’s site) – I am still using Dreamweaver 3 with tables.

Google does like crawling websites fast, that’s why your designer didn’t lie to you. With tables (usually loads of nested tables for the desired layout) spiders can have hard time to crawl deep your site because they need to go through loads of unnecessary code till they get to the main part: the content.

The more content is crawled the higher you might rank.

I have been using CSS/XHTML since 2004 in all our developments, and it’s a definite competitive edge over those websites that use tables for layout.

If you have experience html with tables I recommend buyin Sitepoint’s great book – Designing Without Tables Using CSS: http://www.sitepoint.com/books/css2/ I used it a lot when I learned CSS and it explains the box model (the fundamental of CSS layouts) in a very clear way (though a lot of things will change with CSS 3, it does worth to understand the basics).

I can do the CSS part, but I need help with my content management and understanding the database driven part. I have my DB structure that I think I will need (i’m sure I will have to modify once I use it on the site), but I’m not sure how to connect to the database or how to link the data fields from the page to the mySQL.

I’m from the old school of dBaseIV and VBA so this way of doing things is greek to me, but I’m using the Total Training site that shows alot of it. If anyone can help me with understanding that process then I’ll be a happy camper. :hattip:

My sites layout is all CSS, but I still use tables for displaying table data, such as a compare bonuses table etc

Hi

I have been told by a “professional” website designer that Google does not like tables and sites with css are much more likely to get a higher search ranking.

Is there any evidence of this or was he just trying to get some business by charging to convert a site from tables to css? (this was for a friend of mine’s site) – I am still using Dreamweaver 3 with tables.

Irrespective of the above, would you advise me to change to css – I now have Dreamweaver MX but have never got round to installing it?

Many thanks and a Happy and Prosperous New Year to you all

My name is Ken i am new here but if anyone is in need of help with css let me know im sure i can lend a hand where is needed. If you need your site converted from those nasty tables to CSS i am sure we can work something out… Lemme know

I don’t know if it’s easier (if you are just learning CSS), but it sure does give you total control and you can be as creative as you like.

How do you handle your content? Do use Dreamweaver?

Um, no, I don’t use Dreamweaver. I hand code and have been doing so for about 8 years. I use WordPress more and more so I can use a consistent CMS for the content.

@bb1webs 192284 wrote:

I’m still struggling thru it .. and since I never understood css which I know sounds like saying you don’t understand the world is round … at this point in the game … but such is my situation.

I’m jelous of Gams … I just know you’re learning it a lot quicker and easier than am I ” title=”” class=”bbcode_smiley” />.

great thread.

I’ve been learning it since July and I finally understand the CSS part! Thank God! LOL It’s very different from Front Page and you have to throw all you know about design out the window, but it’s well worth the effort.

I tried MS Expression Web as I’m loyal to MS, but something happened when I tried to upgrade and I got very frustrated and decided to go with Adobe on everything possible and I do not regret it one bit.

BB, I’m always here to assist you with understanding it or whatever you need my good friend! I’m sure that helping you will refresh what I’ve recently learned so feel free to holla if/when you need me because you really should start NOW. :hattip:

Hi all,

Renee talked me into trying dreamweaver (again) … (and who can say no to her?) so I did just out of loyalty more than anything else (or so I told myself) … truth is that i know I need to make the jump to something different than frontpage.

I’m still struggling thru it .. and since I never understood css which I know sounds like saying you don’t understand the world is round … at this point in the game … but such is my situation.

I’m jelous of Gams … I just know you’re learning it a lot quicker and easier than am I ” title=”” class=”bbcode_smiley” />.

great thread.

I use an old version of cutehtml that didn’t have the 30 day trial. I also have cuteftp but never tried the built-in editor.

I’m not familiar with spry but a quick review of the spry site shows they’re javascript libraries.

I guess the best way is to build a test page, upload it to your server and then visit it to see how fast it loads. Make sure you empty the browser(s) cache first to get accurate results. Can’t beat a real world environment for testing.