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Can a search engine determine the positioning of an item on a page from the Stylesheet?

2
2006-08-18 08:35:43, Category: Programming & Design
If i have some text or links that i want to appear to the user to be at the bottom of the page, but i want screen readers to read them first, i can put them first in my HTML, and then position them via CSS at the bottom of the (visually rendered) page. Does a search engine spider know if i have done this? or does it assume the order of items on the page purely from the HTML?

Answers

  1. Irishtek

    On 2006-08-18 08:50:10


    Search engines do have filters to check to see if they are being abused. In your case you are not abusing the system, the text is going to be seen by the user, you're just ensuring that the search engine sees it as well. I see no reason why this wouldn't work. My bigger concern would be cross-browser compatibility. (how it looks to different browsers on different computers)

  2. achtungbaby

    On 2006-08-18 08:59:20


    For optimal search engine optimization, you should have markup that is semantic, structured markup that is based on web standards. A good measuring stick for determining how structured your markup: turn off CSS completely in your browser and take a look at your site. Is your content properly contained? Is it properly structured so that it appears almost like a table of contents (meaning you've used header tags properly)? Having CSS turned off is also a rough way of determining how a search engine spider will see your site.