search engine advice please :-)

[turbobits]

Hello Brian,
Thanks for your views. The 2x2pixel image-links were something that worked really well on my old frames site. Before I put them on the index.html page all the search engines ever spidered was the front page (main left hand frame)! After I inserted a few hundred of these dots I got 374 pages spidered with all but google.
I have used spider simulators on my new Actinic site and they pic up on all the text but the links just end up in the cgi-bin dynamic link perl script. It seems the menu from the Actinic template I am using generates links via this script in the cgi-bin. Google spidered me this week an gave me two results... both in the cgi-bin!
As for the H1s, I've been playing with html all day today and now have a better understanding of them. One other thing I've come across is the 'MORE' buttons on the product pages that bring up the extended info popup.. they are script not html - and from my spider-sim efforts it doesn't look like they are spider friendly...
I know that an extended info page would only come up on its own (without the online catalog) if it were to appear in a search engine result and thats probably why Actinic designed it this way. So I've been writing html into all my pages to put a html link in above each MORE button that links straight to the popup and an html link in each popup that links back to the online catalog. The former is a link behind the text "for detailed product info click..." and the latter has words to the effect of "If you got here via a search engine, click this to get to our catalog".
What do you think? More links to follow = more text spidered = better ranking??
Regards
Richard

[Mike Hughes]

Norman Rouxel has shown how to make the extended info pop-ups search engine friendly:

See: http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=5145

Mike

[mash]

Thanks Jonty,

As it is seasonal, it is a bit like an allotments, it gets left at the end of the season and the proverbial tumble weed blows through hence no "to add to to cart".

Trouble is that I do have a deadline of 15th March to get it up and running again, and I am having difficulty with the annual delivery problem.

I would have to am for a simple website, fast loading and just with our colour scheme, I guess I should start looking through the themes available, we must get the benefit of keywords.

Thank you.

[webyourbusiness]

When we begin a custom site we use the Business css theme or clean layout 1. We then customize the entire set of Actinic templates.

I have to agree with Brian here - the simpler Actinic themes are the best starting points - avoid "Smart" -and other more complex themes.

[mash]

Are there simple ways of previewing themes before appling them to the website?

M

[webyourbusiness]

no - other than save the theme (if you're using developer) - then flicking between them and putting up with the long copies of files etc...

[mash]

Sorry being a bit thick, do not understand what you mean except that there is not way to preview. I am using business too.

I am assuming that you have to apply the theme, have a look, then apply the next!

Something to look forward to!

Thanks for your help. M

[webyourbusiness]

I am assuming that you have to apply the theme, have a look, then apply the next!

that's what I meant...

[mash]

Sorry along weekend.

Thank you.

[Guy]

Thank you everyone, really great info. Just wish I had the technical knowledge!!
Thanks again for taking the time to post.

[BPJSURF]

Dave fischer
I remembered where I read that excessive alt tags was a no no...... This is from msnsearch:
Items and techniques discouraged by MSN Search

The following items and techniques are not appropriate uses of the index. Use of these items and techniques may affect how your site is ranked within MSN Search and may result in the removal of your site from the MSN Search index.

* Loading pages with irrelevant words in an attempt to increase a page's keyword density. This includes stuffing ALT tags that users are unlikely to view.
* Using hidden text or links. You should use only text and links that are visible to users.
* Using techniques to artificially increase the number of links to your page, such as link farms.

you can read all the goodies on this link: I hope this helps you:
http://search.msn.com/docs/siteowner...zingSite.htm#C

[webyourbusiness]

I strongly suggest reading the major engines submission guidelines and advice for webmaster, such as:

http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

However, it can be seen that many of the top google results utilize dodgy techniques to get results!