The rollover effect on navigation links is quite common and can add visual appeal to a Web site. A problem arises when JavaScript is encased within the anchor tag, which can cause problems for the search engines.

The rollovers look good, so odds are if your site is using them you are not going to want to get rid of them. A quick and simple solution to ensure site is indexed is to include basic links, with additional coding, along the button of your Web page as supportive navigation. This approach also gives you the opportunity to get in your keywords twice; once in the “Alt” tag for your main navigation and the second time around in the anchor tag for the supportive text links. In addition it is to your benefit to include all your JavaScript material in external files to keep the Web site code as clean as possible.

Drop down menus (e.g. DHTML) and pull down menus pose similar concerns because of the coding script necessary for them to execute. If you choose to use them be sure to have an alternative means of navigation available.

I already made the suggestion of including your JavaScript in external files to keep the code clean and improve Web site performance. The same benefits apply to including CSS code in external files.

Dynamic Pages and Special Characters
Dynamic content has historically cause many problems for search engines because a) they do not like to be fed duplicate content and b) the query strings can cause spiders confusion. Times are getting better, but they can still cause some difficulties.

Dynamically driven content typically has query string in the URL such as question marks (?), ampersand (&), and the percent sign (%) character. Inside the lengthy URL contains a number of calls to database information and to a template to put together the Web page you see in your browsers. Search engines struggle to figure out what exactly they are supposed index because they have difficulty understanding what information is actually meaningful and how to present it.

There’s no question that dynamically driven sites are common place and there is nothing wrong with that. Your challenge is to work around the needs of the search engines and include pure HTML based information pages as a standard part of your Web site that the search engines can index. Likewise, there are methods of reducing the complexity of URLs into a form the search engines can process – Amazon.com is a prime example. Amazon.com has eliminated all stop symbols from their page URLs. Depending on the technology your Web site is built in (e.g. ASP, CFP, PHP) tools exist to help you re-write your URLs at the server level to make them more friendly for search engine indexing. This is the same logic applied on services such as http://www.tinyurl.com/

Splash Pages and the Use of Rich Media
A splash page is basically an opening page that leads into a site. Often splash pages consist of a Java or a Macromedia Flash intro that can be slow to load for some users and contain little meaningful content for search engines.

Some Web sites use splash screens that consist of an eye-pleasing image and an invitation to enter the site. Many splash pages implement techniques that automatically send you to the home page once you’ve seen the splash page, and others will invite you to “Click to enter” in some form or another. Why do people use splash pages on their sites? For one, they usually look beautiful. Another reason is to provide the user with something to look at while images or content for the home page loads in the background. Individuals also use splash pages as a means of advertising. Splash pages are usually very attractive in appearance, but they often lack content relevant to search engines.

If you do use a splash page on your site, be sure you include the proper meta-tags within your HTML header. This is important so that search engines that use meta-tags can access this information. This ultimately affects your ranking and how your site is displayed to users in the search results. Be sure to include a paragraph or statement on your splash page that pertains to your site’s content. This can help boost your rankings on some of the major search engines that both do and do not use meta-tags. Some search engines will review your opening paragraph and use this information when developing a description for your site that is presented in their search results. Also, include a link into your Web site for the target market and the search engines. Many splash pages exercise the Meta-refresh tag and as we covered in the last newsletter, this should be avoided.

Use of Tables
Tables can pose indexing issues with some of the search engines. Tables are a common feature found on many Web sites to display information and position content, but if implemented incorrectly, they can cause the search engines some confusion. Also, by using tables close to the top of a page, you are potentially forcing the content you want search engines to see farther down on your page. Because some search engines look only so far, you might be hurting your chances of receiving a high ranking. If you are using tables, place any important information pertaining to the page content above the table if possible to help prevent any potential problems.

Here’s an interesting problem some search engines suffer from: Assume you have a Web site, the main color of the background is white, and you have a table on the page with a dark background. If you were to use white in the table, some of the major search engines would pick this up as using same-color text on the same color background and would ignore your site’s submission because it will be considered spam to them. Using tables is okay; many people do it—just be careful with your choice of colors.

Too Many Text Links
Including too many text-based links on a Web page can have a negative impact on your search engines rankings because it results in keyword dilution. Quite simply, if you look at a Web page and it looks like it is being dominated with links then you likely need to cut back.

Custom Error Pages
A custom 404 error (page not found) page should be created for your Web site. This page will displayed when a user attempts to access a page that does not exist. The custom error page should contain your company’s branding and contain links to all major pages of your Web site, similar to the Site Map.

If you redesign or rework your Web site then odds are pages are going to get moved or no longer exist. It is possible that people will have pages of the old Web site bookmarked and those pages may no longer been applicable with the new Web site. Also, search engines will have indexed select pages of the current Web site and those pages may also no longer exist under the new design. The custom error page allows people and search engines to easily make updates. Also, the custom error page adds to the professionalism of the design.

Image Maps
Image maps are single graphics that are split into “hot spots” or sensitive areas that when clicked lead you to different pages or resources within the web site. The problem with image maps is they basically lock search engines out and prevent them from indexing your web site properly or not at all.

If you do decide to implement image maps, always include text hyperlinks so that the search engines to give you a more accurate index can use them. Another option is to include a site map, which is basically the entire layout of your web site in the form of hypertext links. Submitting your site map to the search engines is also a good idea, as it will assist the search engine in making sure it indexes all the pages within your web site.

I guess you could say the perfect Web site from a search engine point of view would be all text and only use basic HTML. A web site designed in this fashion would certainly not meet the expectations of your target market, which is why the techniques covered in this newsletter are so valuable. With the next issue it is time to start submitting your newly optimized Web site!

Tools & Resources

For a refresher or if you missed any newsletters in the Search Engine Optimization series you can view them in the archive on by Web site at: