SEO and CSS (Part 2)

In our first post of this 2-post exercise, we briefly discussed CSS and its application in terms of site design. We also noted that the efficiency and ease of use it encourages can free up valuable time to tend to other SEO activity.

Today, let’s focus on the actual on-page search engine optimization value that Cascading Style Sheets possess.

When search engines visit a page, they don’t look at the whole and then start analyzing individual sections. They don’t have that ability. Instead, they start reading at the top and work their way down through the code and content. Because those bots aren’t all that bright, they can struggle a little bit when it comes to differentiating the really important stuff from the stuff that just happens to be there (or that just has to be there to make it all look pretty).

So they’re programmed to work on a few assumptions. One of those assumptions is that the important part of any page is likely to be at the beginning of the page. That’s fairly reasonable. Most pages don’t hide their purpose in the last paragraph of a long missive.

However, many pages don’t actually feature the most important things on the top. That’s because other code necessary for design and presentation end up sneaking up toward the top–and remember, those bots are reading the code, too.

CSS tends to fix that.

Search Engine Journal states it pretty succinctly:

“Using CSS, you can organize your code so the search engines see your real content first regardless of where it appears on the page.”

And that, in a nutshell, is why using CSS can help you out in the SERPs. It’s going to make sure the bots see the right things in the right places and it’s going to make working with the site efficient, allowing you to add more content or to pursue other SEO objectives.