John,
Sorry my friend, but table based design IS W3C compliant.
Table layout has not be depreciated. It is permitted in HTML 4.01 Strict, XHTML 1.0 Strict, and XHTML 1.1. There is a Tables Modules in XHTML 2.0 that allows complex content in the cells.
Here is a link
Tables in HTML documents
Quote:
11.1 Introduction to tables
The HTML table model allows authors to arrange data -- text, preformatted text, images, links, forms, form fields, other tables, etc. -- into rows and columns of cells.
|
So a tableless design in not necessarily the end all be all.
Further, both Matt Cutts and Vanessa Fox have publicly said that Googlebot can and does strip html from content.
On an interview with Rand Fishkin, right here at WebProNews, she said that it doesn't matter how much code, or bloated code is in a document, Googlebot can read the content. Matt Cutts has gone on record saying that W3C standards don't mean much to Search Results.
Now for Yahoo and MSN, it might be VERY important to have as little code as possible to mess up their bots. Not so much for Google.
Now that I just read that, Bruce Clay was the ONLY
SEO who noticed anthing. I remember that meeting cause I was there.
Here is the entire quote
Quote:
Q: I have a text driven site and I have dynamic pages that I need to optimize to get into the top 10 in most of them. I was wondering if there's significant advantage of CSS over tables and if I should take that fight to my IT department.
Greg: Yes, you should, only because that's how the web progressive and that's how we roll these days. I don't think there's an SEO benefit but I think it's important to follow and maintain some of those standards. If your website is using the font tag, that's bad becasue it's deprecated. Can you make an argument that you can rank way better? Not really. I wish that search engines did reward valid code but they don't.
Dave: Way back, if you had a lot of elements inside of your table, the page wouldn't render until everything loaded. It's about user experience too.
Jill: The bottom line is that it's not going to affect your SEO. If it's a big deal to revamp your site, don't do it.
|
That is Greg Boser, Dave Naylor, and Jill Whalen. Bruce Clay might be one of the greatest
SEO's around, but he's not the only one, and he's sitting up there with EQUALS.