Darren, That's not the real story. It's all well and good to have an honest web site that people link to and like. In all probably you will then do well in Google. But you know and I know folks who actively do good SEO work can do well in Google too. And not only that, but you can do SEO work and be honest! They are not mutually exclusive. Many successful sites will be, IMHO, a combination of both. So SEO does matter, and CSS and SEO may matter too.
Not to get into an SEO debate here, but let's be fair. To address the question of whether Google will appreciate CSS, I don't have facts but the logic goes that Google and other engines like text, and anything but text gets in the way. So when you use CSS and move your content to HTML ratio in favor of content you make your site more SEO friendly. I'll bet others here will have some similar thoughts. However, in my estimation CSS isn't so important to SEO. I'd like to be proven wrong though. Chris -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Darren Wood Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2005 6:34 PM To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org Subject: Re: [WSG] Search Engines and CSS I'm not sure if they do. But what I can tell you is that there is no point at all to try and fool search engines. Search engines (google) will give you more rank if your site is honest, well built and on topic. You can try all the tricks in the world...but the fact remains: if your site is good then people will link to it, if lots of people link to it then google will be more inclined to like your site too. Cheers D Ryan Sabir wrote: > Hey all, > > Does anyone have a definitive answer on whether search engines take > any notice of CSS? > > We have known for a long time that is you have a text coloured the > same as its background then search engines will consider this as an > attempt to fool them, and lower your pages ranking... but what about > doing the same thing with CSS? > > There would be so many ways to hide text with css, setting display to > none, setting the background colour, pushing the padding up so the > text gets pushed out of the element, etc... > > Someone could develop their page full of <H1>'s with dodgy keywords, > and simply not display the content of those H1's. We are always told > the search engines pay respect to markup, so then this H1 content > would be given high relevance. > > I've been searching around for an answer to this and many people are > saying 'maybe' Google does read your css. Does anyone know this for a > fact? > > thanks all, bye! > > > ----------------------- > Ryan Sabir > Newgency Pty Ltd > 2a Broughton St > Paddington 2021 > Sydney, Australia > Ph (02) 9331 2133 > Fax (02) 9331 5199 > Mobile: 0411 512 454 > http://www.newgency.com/index.cfm?referer=rysig > > ****************************************************** > The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ > > See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm > for some hints on posting to the list & getting help > ****************************************************** > ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ****************************************************** ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
