I came across this incredibly well-done presentation on CSS vs. Tables and although I know it's a tired old debate, the presentation style itself actually sparked my interest. I think something like this for the SEO basics is long overdue - the beginner's guide is great, but it's a bit much for many people to digest.
very nice find rand :)
Agreed - I hadn't seen the presentation originally, and I'm pointing it out more for the quality and style of the delivery, rather than the content itself. I think that even Michael would agree that their layout and user experience throughout the presentation is exceptional.
Very well done, thanks
Lots of talk about CSS here lately, nice! Web design sites are filled with tips and tricks about how to accomplish one thing or another; everyone shares their knowledge. This is different from the SEO sites where most people hide their techniques in the hope they will get an advantage. This is what makes seomoz such a good thing, you share your ideas with the community instead of keeping them to yourself, something that has made your site very popular. SEO sites should be more like CSS sites, you have got that right!
Sorry Rand - where I live the word you edited means much the same as twit - I forgot that in other countries it can also have anatomical connotations :)
No worries, mate - we're a bit too prickly 'round here, but I didn't want anyone taking offense - I know you meant well.
Great stuff. I love the way they stress the bandwidth savings. I mention that to clients and they tell me it's not a big deal, so I have to add something like, "It'll be a big deal after we increase your traffic."
I have a bit of a problem with the claim that CSS-based design is better for rankings:
I absolutely believe in doing all of those things, but with the exception of replacing images with text, I've never seen evidence that it makes any difference to a search engine.
Agreed - the mythology about CSS for rankings persists, but they also forgot to mention the link love you can get from CSS design communities (which is definitely good for search rankings).
"I absolutely believe in doing all of those things, but with the exception of replacing images with text, I've never seen evidence that it makes any difference to a search engine."
Text instead of images kicks big butts in the SERPs!
We had a discussion at High Rankings about this recently and I was surprised to learn that apparently nesting an image in a heading tag will communicate to most user agents (including spiders) that the image's alt attribute is the text of the heading. It's like FIR with a step or two skipped.
I'm not sure that it's a good idea, but it does appear to work.
I saw some twit the other day on a board proclaim, with absolute certainty, that search engines hate tables.
This is one of my favorite sites to show people when explaining the advantages of CSS over tables driven design.
I especially like when he starts comparing the code used when styling a table using traditional markup versus using CSS: https://www.hotdesign.com/seybold/16nasty.html