Search engine rankings

[Rod Gill]

Hi,

I'm re-designing and converting my current site from FP2003 to Expression
Web and also trying to update to latest code standards.

So I now have a css based menu system.
I've replaced my old table layout with a 3 column css layout BUT:

With a table and judicious use of the ROWSPAN tag I was able to get useful
text very high up in my code (before all the menus etc). This gives great
results with Google. With css I now have all my menu code etc before the
first headers and text and this will reduce the prominence of my keywords
and I don't want to slide down the rankings. I'll go back to tables rather
than that!

So, Question.
Using css in Expression Web 3 is there anyway to have my main header and
paragraphs at the top of my html file and all menu text etc afterwards?
I'm hoping for an include or link that happens on the server so my html file
has just one line of code followed by relevant text for the search engine to
discover.

Many thanks,

--

Rod Gill

__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 4601 (20091112) __________

The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com

[Ronx]

Taking your hopes first - they are doomed to failure. The SE crawlers will
see the complete page as seen by the browser in View Source.

The only way I know to move the page content above the masthead and menu is
to use tables or absolute positioning. I will never recommend absolute
positioning for page layout - it will cause more problems than it solves.

Search engines today are clever enough to tell the difference between
masthead and content.
--
Ron Symonds
Microsoft MVP (Expression Web)
http://www.rxs-enterprises.org/fp

Reply only to group - emails will be deleted unread.

"Rod Gill" <rodATproject-systemsDOTcoDOTnz> wrote in message
news:#ndT#oBZKH...@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

[Tina Clarke]

Yes you can do that.... look for similar instructions such as this
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/negativemargins/ if thats not exactly
what you want ... i used the keywords in google to find that and others
..... which were ... put content first in css....

hth Tina

"Rod Gill" <rodATproject-systemsDOTcoDOTnz> wrote in message

news:%23ndT%23oBZK...@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

[Cheryl D Wise]

Search engines air smarter than they used to be and recognize menus. I
wouldn't and in fact don't worry about source order. I also use meaningful
names for my section divs like mainmenu, submenu, maincontent and footer.
Look at Google's webmaster section for more info on its current
recommendations.
--
Cheryl D Wise
http://by-expression.com

"Rod Gill" <rodATproject-systemsDOTcoDOTnz> wrote in message

news:#ndT#oBZKH...@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

[Rod Gill]

Thank you all for your replies. I've got a little out of date with my search
engine knowledge as my sites rank well so I've left them alone for a few
years!

Time for some more research and experimentation!

--

Rod Gill

"Rod Gill" <rodATproject-systemsDOTcoDOTnz> wrote in message
news:#ndT#oBZKH...@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

> signature database 4605 (20091113) __________

>
> The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
>
> http://www.eset.com
>
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__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 4605 (20091113) __________

[Rod Gill]

HI,

I think this is the most useful site I found:
http://www.positioniseverything.net/articles/onetruelayout/print

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

"Rod Gill" <rodATproject-systemsDOTcoDOTnz> wrote in message

news:Ow9r8NKZ...@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

[Tom Miller]

"Rod Gill" <rodATproject-systemsDOTcoDOTnz> wrote in message

news:%23ndT%23oBZK...@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

> Hi,
>
> I'm re-designing and converting my current site from FP2003 to Expression
> Web and also trying to update to latest code standards.
>
> So I now have a css based menu system.
> I've replaced my old table layout with a 3 column css layout BUT:
>
> With a table and judicious use of the ROWSPAN tag I was able to get useful
> text very high up in my code (before all the menus etc). This gives great
> results with Google. With css I now have all my menu code etc before the
> first headers and text and this will reduce the prominence of my keywords
> and I don't want to slide down the rankings. I'll go back to tables rather
> than that!
>
> So, Question.
> Using css in Expression Web 3 is there anyway to have my main header and
> paragraphs at the top of my html file and all menu text etc afterwards?
> I'm hoping for an include or link that happens on the server so my html
> file has just one line of code followed by relevant text for the search
> engine to discover.
>

Would it help to simply put the keywords in META tags? They are at the very
beginning of the page.

Tom
--
Who me? What signature?

I manage design and acquistion of data-driven websites at:
http://BlueCollar.ChatNFiles.com
Linkedin Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tlgalenson
www.ChatNFiles.com has telnet chatting and more than 500,000 downloads

[senn]

"Tom Miller" <tlgal...@yahoo.com> skrev i meddelelsen
news:uIyqowNZ...@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

All what I learned, heared and experienced have me believe, that it has no
influence on seo in which order content, navigation and others are on a
page.
The search engines are crawling through the page whatever. It valuerizes the
content on basis of its informational usability to the visitors. Keywords
has
no value if the keywords are not found in the content in context with
valuable
information. A lot of keywords of no value can degrade page-rank.
The OP is better off reading up on Search Engine techniques than doing what
his trying for the moment. A discussion of seo can be found on google
and anywhere else. But sometimes reads blurred. Many people likes to write
complicated about things. The worse is all the spreading of their thoughts
in a
topic thats sometimes makes it difficult to get a clear understanding of the
subject, the author is writing about. That's the same like many learning
books
as well that's chattered with acronyms. One can be chased around a whole day
looking up the meaning of such words, while more or less loosing the
message.
The solution is; read the topic presented by different authors. If
necessary,
over and over again. Write down the main points.
/senn

[Rod Gill]

My experience is the opposite. Google does take note of relevance (at least
it used to when I was heavily into optimizing). It isn't a biggie, but the
link I provided earlier has a site that makes it very easy to put the
content of the middle (main) column first and have the first column come
second, but display first. This gives the best of both worlds and is all in
css.
Basically the more occurrences (up to a point) there are earlier in the body
text the better. If you have 1000 low relevance words of menus etc before
your first text it doesn't help.
External css files help as they reduce the word count in the main file so
increasing the % importance of keywords compared to page total.
Now I have a page structure that ranks well enough for the popularity of my
keywords in my market I'm reluctant to change it!!

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

"senn" <senn@homeplace&.fix> wrote in message
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> __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus

> signature database 4608 (20091114) __________

>
> The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
>
> http://www.eset.com
>
>
>

__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 4608 (20091114) __________