RE: Using Images for Links

At 04:45 PM 1/15/98 -0500, Susq. Health Sys. wrote:
>
>This one has me really hot under the collar.  Excite and now Lycos do not
>utilize meta-tag descriptions or keywords in their indexing.  The result is
>that if a designer wants to have their site indexed in any rational with
>these engines they must design sites in pretty much one way only.  Gif text
>is out.  Creativity is out.  The only straight forward way to design for
>these engines is to present text something to this effect:
>
The TITLE is 99.9% supported throughout.  This should be the first line of
content.  It is almost always the third line in every one of my pages and
generally has enough of a description to suffice.  First paragraph phrased
to grab the attention is usually second and META tags are the third.  Eight
of the most popular search engines use the TITLE.

>And so it goes.  All your important keywords MUST be at the top of the page
>or must be repeated a number of times throughout the page.  You must not put
>a menu bar at the top of the page or else Lycos will use that as your site
>description. (take a look at Lycos's descriptions: most are meaningless)
>You must not think in visual terms.
>
Contrary to popular belief -  use COMMENT sparingly ... although it is not
as widely supported and follows along the lines of the dubious spammers,
I've used this on occasion.  If used properly AND responsibly (without
getting greedy) ... a small description near the top above the nav bar has
been used by a number of developers.  When I say small, I mean no more than
twenty words and none of them repetitive beginning with <!-- Description:
This is a bla bla bla site -->

Once the site has been indexed (few days to a few weeks in some cases),
remove the COMMENTed description and you're back to normal.  Websites
aren't carved in stone.

>I know there are those out there who might respond,"Yeah! That's the way it
>should be."  But, they generally don't know beans about advertising.
>
Don't stereotype people ... advertising has many avenues to which it can
express its creative ideas ... and they surely didn't start with the
Internet and most likely will not depend on the Internet to be a
replacement.  You are correct in the mentioning of the navigational system
being in the left hand column of a table, at the very top of the source,
and being read by the spider before it feasibly could get to the most
relevant content, but that is the way things are working now and developers
need to learn to adapt until the next solution comes down the pike.
Remember, the Internet as we know it today was not an advertising medium
from the outset, it was meant , (and in many circles .. still is) to be an
information exchange to the mass audience.

Things will improve in time ... be patient or find a viable alternative and
publish it ... but to harp on the fact that Lycos, Excite, or any other
organization does something that you deem as inappropriate is not the thing
to do ... and it surely doesn't mean it should be opening discussed here.

>I have only one solution to this problem.  That is to create a page similar
>to the fictional one I described - text only- with a javascript redirect to
>the "designed" home page.  The search engine gloms onto the "./"
>page which has the info presented the way it demands, yet the viewer is
>whisked to the real home page.
>
Sounds somewhat viable, although not feasible to all visitors ... therefore
landing them in the text version.  Why not just create the front end of the
site with everything the search engines crave for at the top, followed by
some well designed imagery and creative opening content (assuming you're in
advertising, there shouldn't be a problem here) and put the navigation on
the bottom and lead the user into the site via that method?  It serves the
same purpose.  It satisfies the spider and the user isn't stuck with the
text only ... resulting in happiness all around ... :-)

>On a secondary note: I don't think sub pages should generally be indexed.
>As a search engine user, I am galled by sites that come up number 8 through
>27 as search results.
>
Although this is more of an irritant than anything else personally... it
proves one thing, those sites have submitted well enough, using the current
system, to get the extra exposure.  However ethical or unethical it may be
to you and I, depending on the view one takes ... it would be an enormous
task to try and prevent this dubious tactic.  And one could also perceive
this method of submission as a valid advertising technique ... since when
have the ad agencies ever played by the rules before the rules were even
created, or after for that matter?

All I'm saying is use your best judgement and be patient with those who
don't know any better.

cmj

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