Don't Block The
Bots: Is your site spider friendly?
by Jeremy Wilson
You've seen the sites.
The ones with stunning flash animations and fancy
java
script menus. They look wonderful and have on more
than one occasion made me envious of the developer's
programming abilities.
Unfortunately, looks are only a small part of the
web
design process. If proper care is not taken to fully
optimize these sites, chances are no one, including
the
search engines, will ever see them.
Now, I am not a programmer. The mere thought of
sitting
down to write some code makes me tense up and feel a
little
queasy.
I'm getting a little shaky just thinking about it
:o)
As a result of my total lack of programming talent,
I have
searched through some of the best discussion boards
to
find the most helpful optimization tips for those
using flash,
javascript, dynamically generated content, and even
frames.
------NOTE-----
Some of the URLs are extremely long and may not work
properly
by just clicking on them. You may need to copy and
paste the url
into the address bar for them to work properly
-----NOTE-----
---JAVA SCRIPT---
Almost every site uses Javascript in one form or
another.
Excessive use can give the search engines a tough
time when
indexing your site. Learn what you can do to improve
the
situation:
Internal linking...Using java menu though
Googlebot and Javascript menu
No deep crawl due to Java script?
Drop down menus
---FRAMES-----
Love 'em or hate 'em, many websites still use
frames. While
the general consensus seems to be to avoid using
frames, it
is still possible to have a frames-based site
perform well
in the search engines. Just be prepared for a lot of
tweaking and fine tuning.
Using Frames With Google:
Frames and No Frames in Google:
Usage of Frames in the Website
---FLASH-----
Just like frames, you either love flash or hate it.
If your website relies heavily on Flash, there are a
few techniques you can use to improve your rankings.
100% Flash Page to Optimize for Google:
Things you should know about Flash:
Google and Flash Sites:
-----Dynamic Content-----
If you use ASP, PHP, or other forms of dynamically
generated
content, keeping the number of parameters small and
short
appears to be crucial to search engine success:
Google Not Listing Dynamic Pages With Long
Strings:
Googlebot, dynamic pages and SSI:
Dynamic URLs, ?'s, Google and htaccess:
To ASP or Not To ASP:
Googlebot and PHP:
I hope this information has been helpful. Taking a
little time
each day to make these changes can pay off huge in
the long run.
Best of luck!
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