I want a left block, center content, and a right block. If you look at SearchBliss.com now it looks fine, but I want to change the actual page order so the center content is at the top (for SE's).

Example:
content
sidebar-left
sidebar-right

When I change "content" margin to auto, it centers as it should, but the sidebars show on either side BELOW IT. What am I missing? Or is this impossible to do having "content" at the top of the page?


CSS code:

#page {
width: 890px;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 10px 0;
}
#content {
margin: 0 auto;
width: 395px;
}
#sidebar-right {
float: right;
width: 240px;
}
#sidebar-left {
float: left;
width: 240px;
}

HTML code:

<div id="page">
<div id="content">THE CONTENT</div>
<div id="sidebar-left ">LEFT SIDE ADS</div>
<div id="sidebar-right ">RIGHT SIDE ADS</div>

I'm not sure I understand, then, what you're wanting to do. Are you wanting content at the top while still having your three-column layout below it? If that's the case just create another div above what you have.

tim

so.... what i would do is just float everything 'left' and just put left-padding on the content and the sidebar-right.

You are just gunna have to make sure that the width and and margins of the sidebars and content add up to to 890px + the padding of the #page

so your divs would prolly look something like this:

CSS code:

#page {
width: 890px;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 10px 0;
height:auto;
}
#content {
float:left;
margin-left:20px;
width: 395px;
height:auto;
}
#sidebar-right {
float: left;
margin-left:20px;
width: 240px;
height:auto;
}
#sidebar-left {
float: left;
width: 240px;
height:auto;
}

HTML code:

<div id="page">
<div id="sidebar-left ">LEFT SIDE ADS</div>
<div id="content">THE CONTENT</div>
<div id="sidebar-right ">RIGHT SIDE ADS</div>

** this is just how i would do it but feel free to make changes.... and you might have to adjust width and to make it compatible with the annoying IE6

You are wasting your time and effort John.

It make zero difference for SEs where content is placed in the source code.

Originally Posted by chrishirst

You are wasting your time and effort John.

It make zero difference for SEs where content is placed in the source code.

The problem is the left sidebar are all outgoing links, as well as the right sidebar. This doesn't make a difference with SE's? I was under the impression that it does or may.

To clarify, here is what I want (UNLESS YOU ARE CORRECT, CHRIS, about SE's not factoring this as far as on page SEO is concerned):

I want
*CONTENT *
*LEFT SIDEBAR*
*RIGHT SIDEBAR*
in order on the HTML page, but have it display as
* LEFT SIDEBAR *| *CONTENT* | *RIGHT SIDEBAR*
in the browser. Is this possible?

Yes, it's possible, but as Chris mentioned, it's a waste of time, SE's don't care!

I beleive it may in Google, so I would like to test the theory. I just can't get it to work. You say it is possible, so do you know how?
Thanks

Google doesn't care either.

http://css-discuss.incutio.com/?page=FloatLayouts

http://webhost.bridgew.edu/etribou/layouts/skidoo_too/

Search engines including Y and G read the source from top to bottom and only read so many lines. Eventually they get around to reading the entire page. It is a good SEO practice to make their life easier. This includes keeping style sheets and js off page as well as putting the most important content at the top of the page. Unless the most important content is the navigation, its best to put the navigation after the important content.

I have mixed feelings about this one. I have been told that the navigation generally IS the most important thing to the search engines, and that it BELONGS at the top of the page BEFORE the content. Generally speaking, however, the search engines are able to easily differentiate between your site navigation and the main content.

After all, your main content should be structured, starting with headers, and with important text in <strong>, perhaps. As search engines become more intelligent, where you actually put your content matters less, as long as it is displayed in a logical, hierarchical manner. I doubt Google, or anyone else, wants to penalize sites that have their navigation in a sidebar, for example, vs those who have it at the top.

Google can translate Chinese into English. I think they are smart enough to figure out where your content is.

Search engines including Y and G read the source from top to bottom and only read so many lines. Eventually they get around to reading the entire page.

Totally wrong. Search engines have NEVER read "x" no of lines then stopped. 3 - 4 years ago there was a physical limit on the number of kilobytes that would be loaded back to the DC by the crawler. This was 101Kb for Google and over 200Kb for Yahoo!. That limit went the way of the Dodo a long while ago and SEs will load and index much larger pages. There is still a physical limit of the KB that will be cached. However, this does not have any negative effect on the page indexing.
DO NOTE: This was a HTML source code limit so did NOT include images, Flash etc.
See the file sizes in these screenshots
file-size.png file-size2.png

Unless the most important content is the navigation, its best to put the navigation after the important content.

No it isn't.
This whole mis-information seems to have come about because a site: query will show text snippets from the navigation (which is often first on the page). If you want to disprove this idea, simply add a word or phrase that is shown in the site footer and rerun the site search.

Don't agree. I don't know many independent webmasters that do either.

Well there are plenty that drink the CSS/SEO magic KoolAid rather than actually testing something.

Yep, and I've tested it and I think that proper placement of code on your source page has an effect. If you do it right, it could help you, if you do it wrong it can hurt you, and tomorrow the SEO's may change the way they look at things.

If something may help you why not do it. Placing your key coding at the top has been shown to have a positive effect on SEO. I have tested it. Its also easy to see that on new sites G takes a casual look at a page. They come back later to make a more thorough exam. On new sites you will place faster by TELLING GOOGLE what the page is about, not making them go fetch.

So make Googles life easier by giving them better code that is easier to index. It won't hurt you and may help you. Its all the little stuff combined that will help you place better.