2.3.7 No flash, no JavaScript, no frames

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Look at these words: flash, JavaScript, frames.

These three are so double-faced. They can make the design of your page look very nice, but quite often, for Search Engines they're as bad as broken links: just make no way to see what's on your site.

For the Robot, JavaScript, frames or flash included in a website are like direction signs on the roads, made in the ancient Greek language. They are just hardly possible to read. Search Engines keep developing, and maybe one day they'll have no problems crawling these elements, but today's definitely not that day.

So if you want the Robot to crawl your site well (and you surely do!), you need to make sure these three flash, JavaScript and frames appeal to the Robot. And, if they don't, get rid of them or back-up these "Greek" signs with signs in normal language.

But first, how do you recognize frames, flash and JavaScript?

Frames

Frames allow displaying more than one HTML document in the same browser window.
Here's an example:

Example of a Website with Frames

You can scroll both parts of the window independently.

If you see that your browser window's broken into one or more parts, and each one's like a separate web page, the site most likely uses frames.

So if your site has frames, you can't be sure that the Robot will crawl the pages correctly. You can rebuild your site and remove frames completely, or at least use the noframes tags. What are these? Noframes tags are special ones that help Search Engines easier crawl your page. I'm sure your webmaster knows this and will make noframes tags easily.

Flash

You just can't miss it. This is the graphic animation that's been so trendy recently, and most of the time, it's used without any purpose. (These animations are made with a tool called Macromedia Flash). If flash is used in navigational elements of your site, it does pretty much harm. Most often, web designers use flash to make an intro like this one:
http://www.freeflashintros.com/flash/downloads/intros/star-warpspace.html

Why is flash bad? Because if you have some text in it, Search Engines won't recognize it. You can make amazing flash animation, and put a fantastic message in it, and use nice links with good use of keywords... But for Search Engines it will be just a set of images, no keyword-rich content or anchor texts, and absolutely no way for the Robot to know what your site's about.

So... if you have flash embedded in your website's navigation, you've got to think it may do you harm. Discuss it with your webmaster, and maybe you need to either get rid of it or just duplicate your navigation bar without flash and place it somewhere else, for instance at the bottom of your web pages, like here:

Text Links at the Bottom of a Page

JavaScript

First, check if your site uses JavaScript. Here's how you make a check for any webpage: open it in your web browser and choose View -> Source in the browser menu. Now use the Ctrl+F command to search for "text" like this: <script. There're several ways of how JavaScript sections may look like, but they all have these <script> and </script> tags.

So the <script> tags tell you your site's using scripts. Again, like with flash, JavaScript can be harmful if it's used in navigational elements, like different menus.

Now, ask your webmaster if your JavaScripts are used in navigation. If the answer is yes, your website's ranking is at risk. There's no guarantee that the Robot will read the scripts correctly: from my own experience, robots don't crawl 50% of JavaScript. So to avoid trouble, ask the webmaster to eliminate the harmful scripts, or at least include the noscript section. Here's a general example of this kind of section:

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
   Some script
</script>
<noscript>
   Some valuable content for spiders and javascript disabled browsers.
</noscript>

DO IT NOW! Detect JavaScript, flash and frames and make sure they're not causing you trouble.

Removing flash, frames and JavaScript from your website requires special skills. Well, in theory you can do it yourself, if you're familiar with HTML. But to ensure all's done correctly, my advice is: ask your webmaster to do away with these evil things — he'll definitely solve the problems with ease.

2.3.8 Use text links instead of images

For the same reason, Search Engines don't understand texts standing on graphic links: they're like abracadabra to the Robot. And, you should always make reasonable choice between a nice button and a text link like these:

Examples of Buttons and Text Links

The button will look great on your page, but the robot won't read the text on it, though it can be very important. As for a text link, though it doesn't contribute much to your site's look, its text gets noticed by Search Engines' robots. Moreover, today's technologies, like DHTML or CSS, make it possible to create elements that look as great as images, but are easy to understand for Search Engines (you can check).

So try to avoid image links and replace them with normal text links, where the site's design allows it.

DO IT NOW! Check where it's possible to use text links instead of images, and replace them. After that, make these changes available on the web.

We're now almost done, testing our website for Search Engine-friendliness. Just a couple small points coming. So let's go further!

2.3.9 Remove the Welcome page

I guess you also saw a thing like this: you load a site and all you see is a picture saying something like "Welcome to this cool website". To come to the website, you need to click a link somewhere on this Welcome page.

Examples of Welcome Pages

Honestly, I hate Welcome Pages. Most Internet users hate them. And, the Robot hates them, too! Yes, even though he's a patient guy, welcome pages are getting on his nerves. And what about normal people, huh?

Making a visitor come to a Welcome Page is as weird as what I imagined now: say, you're going to Las Vegas, but before you come there, you have to stay for a day in a tiny place called "Welcome to Las-Vegas City" City, with no alcohol, no women and no casinos — and only then you can go to Las Vegas itself. Who would do that?!?

To cut it short, Welcome Pages only do harm to your website sales. So if you have a Welcome Page and there's a way to kill it, don't wait to do that.

DO IT NOW! If you have a Welcome page, and it's possible to remove it — remove it!

2.3.10 Correct HTML mistakes

I love to have a coffee at Denny's right across the street, and I know everyone there. Last week, a new girl started working there, and her accent sounded very familiar. When I asked, the girl (her name's Dana) said she's Czech. Just like my mom, you know! And — I guess I was far too confident, but I tried to speak Czech, when Dana was making me a coffee. (Yeah, I remember a couple of words from my mom.) Well, I did speak, but I just made so many mistakes the girl could barely understand me! I guess I looked so stupid!

The same thing may happen to your site. The Robot does understand his "native" HTML. But he won't like bad code.

And I'll tell you something: each page was made by a human being, so it 99% sure has mistakes. The main idea about these HTML errors is...

If you have 100% correct code, it won't add up to your rankings. But, if you don't, you may pretty well rank lower than you could, just because of the bad code. And, your SEO efforts may be just time and money down the drain.

So you'd better make your code nice. How do you know what you need to fix? Simple! A great help to all SEOs and webmasters is this free validator: http://validator.w3.org . Go to this URL, and just paste your page's address into the field you see:

W3C Validator

Now click to Check and look at the results. You'll not only see a message of failed validation.

Results in W3C Validator

Under it, you'll find a report of each and every flaw, and, what's the greatest thing of it — explanations letting you know how to fix each error.

DO IT NOW! Run a quick check with a w3c validator (http://validator.w3.org) and fix HTML of each page that is important to you! Don't forget to upload the changed file to your server.

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