Forum Moderators: phranque
The company I contacted said that they would be able to create a XHTML and CSS compliant site without using tables (my current site uses tables and is HTML compliant)
So, my question is, is it worth having my site redesigned in CSS and XHTML and will this major change affect in Google rankings in any way?
My first impression is that if you asked for the former and their only response was to offer the latter, they weren't listening. That alone would disqualify them and/or their suggestions from any further consideration in my opinion. So did they offer something in between, if so, was it more towards the tidying up approach?
As to if it's worth it, how much tidying up really needs to be done? Is a complete rebuild really needed, but you asked for tidying up because it sounds less expensive? If so, maybe moving to a CSS, etc design would be worthwhile. On the other hand, I'm sure you've heard the saying "If it aint broke, don't fix it". So, is it broke, or just a little untidy?
Could it cause problems with the SEs? That's a whole other issue. Done right, it probably wouldn't cause a lot of trouble. Done poorly, which happens way too often from what I've read here, you might well be better off staying with the untidy old site.
If your site is working, if the pages VALIDATE - which you can do yourself - it's not likely the structure of your pages are affecting your search engine placement. That rests in your site content. An "XHTML site" has no inherent advantages over a valid 4.01 HTML document in respect to search engines.
Another consideration for you - if they revise this site using markup you don't understand, will you still be able to maintain it without breaking it? The answer is almost always "no." So you are better off learning this technology yourself and moving forward on your own.
Table layout vs. css-only is an important consideration for other reasons, not search engines. Table layout sites index fine. I will say though, as a recovering table junkie myself, it **is** amazing how much less markup CSS-only requires. :-)
personally i've never gone down the xhtml route
css is only worth it if there is a gain in some way, some css sites are more bloated than using tables.
as for google rankings: xhtml will make no difference
css: yes it could, but only if used in a seo friendly way
