I get that tables are generally a bad idea for web site layouts. But can having a site layout done with tables cause the site to perform poorly in search engine results?

Just wondering, I came across this site from a forum members sig and it got me to thinking.

http://www.searchenginefriendlylayouts.com

The site recommends using divs, and javascript to present the content div first. I can see why this technique would be useful, but since i've not designed a website with a table based layout in years I don't really have a recent basis for comparison. Div based layouts just seem easier and make more sense to me.

It's not purely a theoretical question. Having an issue with a site I'm trying to tweak because it's ranking is less than ideal and wonder how much of a negative impact a table based layout might have. Current owners seem pleased with it so I'm not yet convinced that it needs to be changed.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!!

If you want to see what a search engine spider "sees" on your site, turn off ALL javascript and all css and look at it as text-only. You'll usually find with table-based sites that the content isn't presented in a linear fashion and doesn' t flow well and you can see the order the information is in.

With css layouts, you can control how the information is presented. If done well, viewing the site in text-only mode should make sense and be accessible. Using javascript to push some content above others for search engines is pointless - search engine spiders don't process scripts. There's really nothing wrong with having a nav above the content, but you should always provide a 'skip to content' link in your code, for accessibility.

You should write your code and your content FOR PEOPLE, not search engine spiders.

But can having a site layout done with tables cause the site to perform poorly in search engine results?

Nope!

AND with SEFL, Adam KNOWS that it isn't truly the case, he is using it as a sales pitch.

It won't do any real good using such "tricks" to move content around but it doesn't do any harm either.

Thank you both for the advice.

LadyNRed, thanks especially for the tip about turning off the CSS and Javascript. I think that's exactly where I need to start. That alone may save me hours of head scratching.