8 replies to this topic

[jjmawbey]

I am new to CSS but have created a .css file because I heard that it offers several benefits such as sitewide changes to one file affect all pages, quicker download times for pages, etc, etc.

However, I heard a rumour that search engines such as Google do not read .css files and therefore will not see the format attributes that I have set in my .css file such as <bold> and <size> for <h1>, <p>, tags etc.

Consequently, when Googlebot reads the html of my pages, it will not see the format attributes, therefore expecting the end users browser defaults to set the font attributes (e.g. times new roman font, size 12, etc).

Is this right, or will Google still associate the html tags with the .css file?

Sorry if this sounds a bit unclear...!

[Raphael]

CSS is good for SEO because CSS is good for useability.

If it's good for your users, it's good for SEO.

Err, can we make that this forum motto or something?

p.s. - A less glib answer would be that search engines care about content, not layout. CSS separates content from layout and gives the search engines what they want without giving them what they don't.

[torka]

If I'm understanding your question correctly...

Google doesn't affect how your pages display in the visitor's browser. If somebody clicks through to your site from a Google SERP, they're going to see your page with the CSS effects as you intended, because their browser software will see the CSS file (assuming they're using a browser that can understand CSS, of course! ) and render the page accordingly. Google doesn't actually display your page to the visitor; they simply provide a link to it. It's up to your web server and the visitor's browser to actually display the page.

Google doesn't pay attention to CSS (at the moment) because they frankly don't care if you've decided to make all your H1 tagged text display in dark blue Helvetica. As Raph said, they care about the content of your page, not the presentation. (Of course, as with anything else in SEO, that may change...)

--Torka

[skip_]

Yes, it is a bit unclear what you are asking, but if I guessed your question right, here's my two cents:

Indeed, Google doesn't seem to look at the CSS for the time being but I don't see how it could create any problems in terms of SEO. On the contrary, some people (shame on them) are using CSS to "trick" search engines.

Google just sees text on your page – it doesn’t really “expect” or “assume” anything. If you have <h1> on your page, it reads <h1> and treats it as a header tag. Naturally, if you specify font weight as bold and increase font size in CSS, Googlebot won’t know about it either.

What you should do then is use CSS to define parameters such as font color and font family (and others that do not affect importance) and then just use regular html tags (such as <b><strong><big> etc.) directly on your page for certain parts of your text that you want to stand out. You realize that you can use regular html tags on your page to modify CSS classes, right?

That’s what I do and it works fine. Hopefully this helps.

[sweepthelegnate]

What you should do then is use CSS to define parameters such as font color and font family (and others that do not affect importance) and then just use regular html tags (such as <b><strong><big> etc.) directly on your page

I think you nailed it skip. the search engines will understand your tags, because you're still using them.

[Karl Ribas]

I personally use CSS whenever possible. I would say that 95% of the websites I optimize and maintain have CSS.

A good optimization technique for me has always been to eliminate excess code and CSS helps to do just that, not to mention make developing and maintaining a website a whole lot easier.

Just my 2 cents!

[jjmawbey]

Thanks Guys

Thats helped answer my question perfectly!

[JeremyH]

As a side note, CSS usually reduces the size of your html files -- removing all the layout instructions. This leaves your html stronger and increases the density of your copy and keywords.

I don’t know if keyword density is still a factor, but I don’t see it hurting.

If I were you, I would use CSS.

[Jill]

This leaves your html stronger and increases the density of your copy and keywords.

I agree that using CSS is a good thing. However, I'm pretty sure that the search engines ignore html code and formatting, etc., so it's really not an SEO issue. Just a good thing to do to make your pages easier to update quicker to load.