HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
The
<div>
element allows for more dynamic capability in page layout. For a more static lay-
out declared right in the HTML page, the
<table>
element is more appropriate. The following
HTML defines a table that provides a common blog-site format, with a header section, a left
sidebar, a content area, a right sidebar, and a footer area:
<table>
<tr>
<td colspan="3" id="Header"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td rowspan="3" id="LeftBar"></td>
<td rowspan="3" id="MainContent"></td>
<td id="RightSideTop"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td id="RightSideMiddle"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td id="RightSideBottom"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="3" id="Footer"></td>
</tr>
</table>
The
<table>
element is very flexible. Additional elements such as
<thead>
and
<tfoot>
provide a more semantic approach to labeling the table cells. The concern with using the
<table>
element approach is the static nature of the structure. To change the overall structure
of a site that uses tables for layout, you need to go to every page and make the changes. It's
worth noting that some methods that make such changes easier have evolved over the years
in response to the maintenance headache involved.
When a website is required to create an online presence, you have to ensure that it can be
found among the millions of sites that already exist. Search engine optimization (SEO) is
a technique used to make elements of the website easily discoverable and appropriately
indexed by search engines, so that when users search for content related to your site, they
find your pages. Search engines such as Bing and Google constantly scour the Internet for
content. When they find webpages, they go through the HTML and index content such as
page and image metadata. They use the indexed data to allow users to search for essen-
tially anything on the Internet and receive relevant results. Clearly, then, a relationship exists
between the content on your websites and how easily users can find your sites using a search
engine. With the semantic HTML elements discussed in the previous objective in mind, you
should note some additional things with respect to the logic search engines use to discover
what's on websites. On the whole, the subject of SEO is far outside the scope of this topic and
exam; entire topics are written on the subject. However, discussing how HTML5 impacts SEO
and website design is relevant.
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