Re: style sheets

Peter C Cooper wrote:

With regards to your specific query, however, yes, I would continue to use
certain formatting elements within your page for benefits with spiders,
Google or not. The common method is to use <strong> and <em>, which you can
then readjust from CSS, particularly if you supply an id or class. You could
continue to use <b> and <i> although there is some debate as to whether
they're as 'proper' as using <strong> and <em>.

there is no debate...there are merely some people who
don't as yet understand the tags

<strong> is for a strong emphasis...for a bit of the text
that should be treated as very important but which is not
a header

<em> is for emphasis...for a bit of text that should be
separated from the surrounding text for any other reason

<b> and <I> are purely presentational and should only be
used if there is a presentational convention that doesn't
affect the conceptual aspects of the text at all...this
is the case in a few specialist fields but doesn't affect
the vast majority of web sites

there is nothing to debate since it's all there in the
definitions of html

--
eric
www.ericjarvis.co.uk
"Hey Lord don't ask me questions
There ain't no answer in me"

curious. so what you are saying, Eric, is that <strong> tags relay
information regarding importance of the text contained within to
spiders. <b> tags, on the other hand, only have to do with
presentation and do not get interpreted as important by spiders?

Slim wrote:

curious. so what you are saying, Eric, is that <strong> tags relay
information regarding importance of the text contained within to
spiders. <b> tags, on the other hand, only have to do with
presentation and do not get interpreted as important by spiders?

in theory there is no reason for a spider to
automatically interpret <b> as being of extra
importance...I would guess that most of them do
however...so in SE terms it makes little direct
difference

however, what has happened is that because of systematic
abuse of <b> tags, on those occasions where text should
be presentationally bold but not of additional importance
it is incorrectly given extra weight by most spiders

it's on eof those things where if you view it from an
entirely selfish short term POV it makes little or no
difference, but it causes problems if you take a wider
view

there are very good reasons for treating <b> and <strong>
differently...unfortunately it's going to take a good
long while of people doing so before we get back to the
flexibility and precision we ought to have available to
us

--
eric
www.ericjarvis.co.uk
"Hey Lord don't ask me questions
There ain't no answer in me"