Web Development and Design in London: Using Divs versus using Tables.
View PDF | Print View
by: Robert London
Total views: 49
Word Count: 798
in website design which will influence the way they proceed with
current and future web design projects.
While there can be no argument over the benefits of CSS stylesheets in
opposition to inline styling, there is still a great deal of
controversy over the adoption of new web site design layout.
On the one hand we have the tried and trusted method of Web page
creation using Tables and on the other we have the contemporary method
of using DIV’s. The core problem is which method to use? Which method
is better?
Web Development purists in London will argue for complete and full
adoption of W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) CSS (Cascading Style
Sheets), which means only using DIV tags to build and layout your
website pages. There are a few major points they use to back up their
argument, most of which surround and support SEO (Search Engine
Optimisation).
The Benefits of using DIV’s
•The DIV tags original purpose is for the design and layout of website
content. •Using DIV’s means less code needed to construct a webpage,
which means less code for a search bot to navigate through. This means
quicker and more comprehensive indexing of your website. “Content is
King” for search bots.
•Because of the “Top down” method in which data is displayed in the
website page, search engines are able to search and rank the importance
of your content on your webpage.
But the ideas of the Web Development ondon
are being challenged by industry professionals who claim that DIV
layouts are simply not robust enough. Their major arguments for using
Tables focus around Web browser compatibility.
The Benefits of using Tables
•The Table tag and its properties are universal across most if not all
web browsers, meaning less technical “work-arounds” to make your design
display properly. This means more time is spent on improving designs
than trying to make designs simply display correctly.
•Table layouts allow the designer a level of measurement and accuracy
which is difficult to obtain with a full DIV implementation.
•Tables make creating a visually intensive design easier. Why? Because
what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) as Tables set out content in a
manner that is visually logical to the human eye.
So, back to the question, which method to use and which method is
better? Each website design or web development project should be
evaluated for its needs and purposes before building can begin. You
have to ask yourself what is most important for this site.
Most website builds have one major focus. This focus is either
economic, informative or visually extravagant. All good websites
contain elements of all three but tend to put emphasis on one of these
areas.
Economic Focus
Economically driven websites focus heavily on driving traffic to their
website in order to sell goods. These sites need great SEO (Search
Engine Optimisation) and tend to use the latest technologies to give
them the edge. In this case using DIV tags for structure would increase
the overall SEO London of this site and could potentially offer a better solution than a Table layout.
Information Focus
Informative sites tend to have a great deal of content which is usually
dynamic and populated from an integrated CMS (Content Management
System). Your template needs to be malleable enough to expand with
changing content. In this case using a combination of Tables and DIV’s
is not a bad solution. Using Tables to setup a strong outer structure
which will be cross browser compatible and using DIV tags within the
Table structure to minimize the “code clutter” and give the site a
little boost in SEO.
Visually Extravagant Focus
Everyone’s favorite kind of website. This type of website focuses on
the visual impact on the user. Sites like these can be very intricate
and building a website that doesn’t compromise the original design is
vital. This style of website also needs to look good in all browsers.
Using Tables would be the best approach for intricate designs because
of its robust nature, browser compatibility and its ability to be
precise.
In all three of the above cases there are a hundred counter arguments
for using only DIV’s or only Tables. But before you tear your hair out
over which method to use, remember that what this all boils down to is
what is best for the client. As a website designer and builder your
responsibility is to produce a website that fulfils their needs on time
and on budget to the best of your abilities.
No one ever said there couldn’t be a compromise between Tables and DIV’s.
About the Author
Robert London is an employee at Lilo, a Web Development and Design company based in London. Lilo also specialises in Web Development London, Website Design and Branding, E-marketing, E-commerce, and Multimedia, Web Applications as well as SEO London. Lilo has offices in Blooms bury, London, Cape Town South Africa and Melbourne Australia.
Web site:-http://www.lilo.co.uk/
Rating: Not yet rated
