Help with HTML please

[Doug Stewart]

I have some HTML code that doesn't do quite what I need. Can anyone help with
the following?

I've divided my home page into 3 columns. First column is pictures, second
is text, 3rd is navigation buttons. For SEO purposes, I want the 2nd column
to appear first in the HTML. I was kindly given some HTML code that creats a
table that achieves this: 2nd column is first, followed by 1st column,
followed by 3rd column.

I would like to change the order slightly so that it is: 2nd column first,
3rd column 2nd, 1st column last. Can anyone tell me what I need to do to the
following code to acheive this?

<div align="center">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"
bgcolor="#FFFFFF" id="table1">
<tr><td><br></td>
<td rowspan="2" valign="top"><br><br>This content is first.</td>
<td><br></td></tr>
<tr><td>This content is second (I would like it to be third)</td>
<td>This content is third (I would like it to be second)</td>
</tr></table>
</div>

The code effectively creats a table with 2 cells in the first column, 1 on
the second, 2 in the third. By using the bottom cell of the first and last
column, the middle column appears first in the HTML. If you would like to see
the result, I've created a test page:
http://www.france-property-and-information.com/test_page.htm

Very grateful for any suggestions.
Doug Stewart

P.S. I think it is about time I learned some basic HTML so that I can do
this type of stuff myself. Can anyone recommend a book that is fairly basic
(I'm not super technical)?

 

[clintonG]

Don't waste your time -- our anybody else's with this nonsense -- I've
mastered Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to the extent that it can be
mastered hoping you are not a damn fool and can understand I am trying to
help you understand the way Google and other search engines really work is a
closely held trade secret. Hello? Thus, it is sound to conclude most SEO is
fraudulent but there are many truths and facts to be learned regardless some
of which I will help you get started with

The rumor contends that text is read from left to right therefore SEO can be
improved by putting the important text on the left and top of the page is a
fallacy; a false conclusion based on a true supposition. Its true that
browsers and other parsers parse text top to bottom and left to right but
any conclusion suggesting doing so improves search ranking is false. There
is absolutely no proof that this context has ever has helped improve search
engine ranking unless you consider some boob with a website claiming it does
to be proof.

Briefly then, the best way to improve search engine rankings is to use
semantic markup, e.g. pure HTML with relevant elements ranked in order as
h1, h2, h3 and so on in each page. That means every page should optimally
start with an h1 element and so on. There is much more to learn I assure you
but again, the rumor you are asking questions about is not worth discussing
any further.

<%= Clinton Gallagher
METROmilwaukee (sm) "A Regional Information Service"
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://metromilwaukee.com/
URL http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/

 

[Steve Easton]

It's not worth the bother.
The "good" search engines spider the page title and the visible text on
the page.
Regardless of where the visible text is located.

--
Steve Easton
Microsoft MVP FrontPage
95isalive
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