At 15:37 08/07/2003 -0400, you wrote: >There was a thread on this list recently about Search Engine Optimization >for CF sites. Just so happens SEO has become an issue for me on a freelance >project, and I want to start a list of best practices I can work into my >development processes. Thus far, I have three items: > >1) Configure the server to run other file extensions through the CF parser >(i.e. HTM, HTML) in order to avoid being ignored >2) Use meta description and meta keyword tags to indicate content on the >site >3) Use search engine safe links instead of passing CGI parameters
Making sure the crawler bots index your pages is obviously the best first step... Bear in mind that Googlebot and others can index dynamic pages, but only if they're linked to from static pages (i.e. ones with a "?" in the URL). But then special pages of links for crawlers are only a last resort, and using some sort of other site-wide technique (slash-delimited query strings, or getting your CMS to write out flat HTML files) is preferrable. But as far as actual optimisation goes, the following rules are important in today's Google-centric web (more than META keywords and description, though I always use these anyway, for their potential value for things other than Google): - Put keywords in the TITLE tag of your page. I used to avoid this cos I sympathise with people bookmarking things and having to change the title to something short and useful in your browser. But then, if no one finds your page, how can they bookmark it? ;-) I go for a reasonable phrase-like string like "Cheap Banana Imports for UK Retail, from XYZ corp" - instead of "XYZ corp - Home" (which is nicer for bookmarking, but useless for search engines). - Use structural XHTML markup wherever possible. Make sure the H1 tag contains keywords relevant to the page's topic (without rendering it silly as a human-readable main title of course). Pages with keywords in the TITLE, H1, and body text near the top of the page get higher rankings than those that don't. - If possible, use table-less CSS layouts. Then you can shove your H1 and main content right at the top of the markup, even if in the layout it comes underneath loads of navigation and banners and whatnot. These can be shoved at the bottom of the code, but positioned at the top using CSS positioning. Obviously in tables, you're often forced to have your left-hand side nav as well as your top nav above the content in your markup. This means lower rankings. These aren't set in stone, but they've got me some pretty good rankings so far. HTH, Gyrus [EMAIL PROTECTED] play: http://norlonto.net/ work: http://tengai.co.uk/ PGP key available ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=4 FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
