Hi jori,

1. In regards to SEO :

The tables are crawlable by search engines, if that helps :

- 1. Non-server-side tables (such as tables linked to Excel, CSV, PHP, JSON, XML, and Google Sheets) are crawlable in their entirety, ( all rows)

2. while the server-side processing tables (such as Manual Tables and MySQL query-based Tables with server-side option enabled) only show the rows that are present in the table when the page loads.

Let me know if you have any additional questions about that.

2. And is there a way to build on frontend instead of using shortcode?

- No, there is no way to create a new Table and configure the Table options on the Front-End, if that is what you meant.

But, if you mean to 'insert' the Table you already created and configured on the Page via Page builder, yes - we have a native integration with some major Builders;

We have the DIVI Page Builder integration with wpDataTables;

And we have a native integration with Elementor;

You will also find our wpDataTables with Gutenberg integration;

wpBakery integration;

and Avada integration;

Our Plugin is compatible with a large majority of all major Page Builders, but you can reach out to us if you encounter any issue.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Hi jori,

Just following up on this subject, in the meantime we did some tests with our QA Team, and i am happy to confirm, the Simple Tables are actually fully crawlable by Search Engines, including Google.

For example, you can try this with our Demo Simple Table on this Page : https://wpdatatables.com/documentation/table-examples/wordpress-amazon-product-comparison-table/.

If you search for any value from any cell of that Table, for example we took the "Exynos 990 Octa-Core" value under the "performance" / "Micro"  section,   and we just added "wpdatatables" to the Search, for a quicker search;

and it comes up on Google Search engine.

Here are some screenshots :

As you can see, we can conclude that all our Table types are crawlable on Google Search engine ( and other search engines, of course).

For Simple Tables, they do not have Pagination feature, so they will be fully crawlable since they only got one Table Page.

For other Table types, it depends if the table is server-side enabled or not, ( if the table is server-side and has Pagination, then only the first Page gets crawlable), as explained in the previous replies.

Let me know if you have any additional questions on this.

Thank you.

Hi jori,

1. You're welcome.

No problem, the Simple Tables seem the way to go for now, for your use-case.

But if you try any other Table types and if you find any issue, you can always open new tickets and we will help.

2. When it comes to the second question, what we recommend for comparison Tables as you described;

I would say the Simple Tables are the best at the moment for comparisons like that, because with Simple Tables you can have more freedom/flexibility in terms of layout of having two ( or more) companies "side by side" compared like that.

We have some table examples you can check out maybe as a starting point, or ideas to help.

Here we got some Comparison Table examples, such as comparing several "graphic cards" as products from Amazon, and some other Table examples, you can switch between the examples through the tabs.

And here is another Page  with "WordPress pricing" Comparison for some "Plans".

You will notice in some of these comparison Tables we added these symbols like "check mark", and you can add cross symbols, or any other symbol you wish in the cells.

3. When it comes to adding symbols like that in cells, my advise, the easiest way could be to simply use images for this purpose.

I will show you an example how you can create a cell that shows a "green checked" sign.

-

Perhaps the easiest way is to get an image of a symbol you need, upload it to the Media Library ( or you can use an image URL from anywhere, basically),

and you can add custom HTML with the image tag to show the image in the cell.

For example, if you wish to copy this same image of a green checker symbol as on this example "Amazon products table", you can use this HTML:

<img src="https://wpdatatables.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/icon-yes.png" class="aligncenter size-thumbnail lazyloaded" width="20" height="20">

And the green checker symbol should look like this in the table cell(s) :

For the red X symbol, our example cell is like this :

<img src="https://wpdatatables.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/icon-no.png" width="20" height="20">

And this is how it is rendered in a cell ( For Simple Tables, and the same way it will render for other Table type in a "String Column") :

Another thing to note, our developers released a latest update 6.1 ,  which now adds Templates for Simple Tables which you can use.

When you create a new Simple Table and choose your number of Columns and Rows, scroll down and you will find these "templates" which you can use in order to create the same Tables as from our Simple Table examples :

So, let's say if you Choose to Create a new Table with our Template as "Pricing Table 1", it will generate the same Table as from the Example, and you can edit it as needed for your use-case.

Let me know if that helps.

Thank you.

Hi jori,

Sorry, i just forgot to add one more detail about making Comparison Pages in general.

Our Team recently made an Article which has some general advice on best practices on 'How to Build a Product Comparison Page', so you can check it out here, and see if that can additionally help.

Of course, also go through the rest of the details i shared in the previous reply, let me know if that helps and if you have any additional questions on the subject.

Thanks.