How to display HTML in a different order to the source code

Question

We have a client who is very fussy about their seo and wants the html to appear in a very specific order in the source. This is fine until that order is completely different to the order that they wish the parts of the page to render.

This is integrating into a cms which makes it somewhat harder.

Currently, the only method that I have come across is to position these elements absolutely so as to have complete control over display vs source order. This obviously comes with its own set of problems when coupled with dynamic content.

We are unable to use css3 for the site as it must be the same across all platforms. CSS3 has some very nice features to achieve exactly what I want but its off the table.

Are they any other methods to allow the content to be ordered differently in the source compared to display. There are 4 - 5 parts per page that need ordering.

Answer 1

It sounds to me like your client doesn't understand how SEO works with today's crawlers. Five years ago, this was a different story; You better have had your important links up top in the code. Today, that's not the case, even though some still swear by it.

Regardless of that, reordering your source is a horrible idea in terms of accessibility. Screen readers read the source in order, thus making the site harder to read and navigate for those using assistive technologies.

So, my recommendation to you is try to educate your client that content order in the source does not matter with today's search engines and it severely hurts accessibility when you start to reorder content in a fashion that doesn't make logical sense. In other words, don't do it.