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Learn SEO: Architecture of Your Site - Role of Elements Part 2
By Kimberly Bock | December 24, 2007
In the previous post we discussed 3 more elements that affect your site’s search engine compatibility. Those were page file extensions, robots META tag, and frames.
This post we’ll discuss the final 3 elements of the 11 that were addressed in the beginning of this series. These are: Dynamic content – query strings, graphic navigation menus, and flash. If you have not read the previous posts, taking time to do so will benefit your quest to gain visibility with the search engines so your site has the greatest opportunity to be indexed and therefore viewed by the masses.
Dynamic Content
The Search Engine Glossary’s definition of dynamic content:
“Information on web pages that changes or is changed automatically, e.g. based on database content or user information. Sometimes it’s possible to spot that this technique is being used, e.g. if the URL ends with .asp, .cfm, .cgi or .shtml. It is possible to serve dynamic content using standard (normally static) .htm or .html type pages, though. Search engines will currently index dynamic content in a similar fashion to static content, although they will not usually index URLs which contain the ? character.”
The problem with dynamic content doesn’t necessarily lie in the content itself, but in the URL. Due to the fact that the URL contains query strings such as ?, &, %, +, =, $, etc., the search engines skip past it, without indexing. (In the original post to this series we learned that the search engines place a lot of indexing weight on the URL and Title tags of your site) If you have dynamic URL’s do not fear! They can be rewritten so as to appeal to the search engines for indexing your pages. But, that is not something that I will address here.
Dynamic URL Ex: http://learningseobasics/lesson/.asp?12345=planet&zed
Graphic Navigation Menus
he key word here is “Graphic”. Not all navigation menus are graphic menus. Graphics are basically images. And images are not read by the search engines and therefore are not indexed. The search engines are text lovers. They cannot ‘see’ images. The use of text navigation is always best. Text-based loads faster and gives the webmaster an opportunity to include keyword-rich anchor text. If you cannot avoid using graphic navigation menus, atleast use ALT attributes so the search engines will have something to index.
View an examples of Graphic navigation menus here.
Flash pages
Flash is a Macromedia product, which Adobe acquired, allowing designers to create rich animations including multimedia presentations, web animations, e-learning courses and application front ends..
The problem with Flash, once again, is its inability to be indexed by the search engines. It’s great to look at, but often takes too long to load and typically redirects inconveniently to another URL anyway. You will likely lose more consumers interest with the loading time than you would if you just avoided this tactic. This is a Flash page.
Conclusion
If you don’t mind losing traffic, then by all means, incorporate these elements into your site design. But, if you like having traffic and revisits, then you are better off leaving these elements out on the back porch with the pups. Adhere to quality text, and traffic will come, courtesy of the search engines that will send the masses to your door.
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Topics: SEO/SEM Training |
January 17th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Well, i have some news.. Search engines DO index flash websites, and read all the textual content of the movie. I say this because i made an experiment and google indexed that test swf containing text. Even with that conclusion, i still dont recommend using too much flash for a website yet. Search Engines, well, google, is still learning to deal with flash movies, and its possible not to fully understand a complex flash movie. Cheers!
January 17th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Thanks for the update Toto!
You have just provided a wonderful reason why “Learning SEO Basics” works..
It has always been designed as a tool for us to grow and learn as times are changing. My hope has always been to continue to learn together..helping one another stay up to date as search deepens and is further explored.. A “Newbie friendly” environment. That said..
Flash HAS changed most recently.. (as you were so kind to mention)
Although, I’d like to note a direct reference here from Google’s “Webmaster Help Center” which is always a reliable source if you wish Google to show your site favor..
“Yes, Google indexes pages that use Macromedia Flash. However, our crawlers may experience problems indexing Flash pages.
If you’re concerned that Flash content on your pages may be inhibiting Google’s ability to crawl your site, you may want to consider using a text browser such as Lynx to examine your site. If features such as Flash keep you from seeing all of your site in a text browser, then search engine spiders may have trouble crawling your site.”
Kimberly