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gregbatch · 09-24-2006, 11:54 AM

I use a number of search engine simulators to evaluate my pages. When I run my home page on a couple of them, they report only a few words in the body. They seem to be blind to the text in all the links, such as navigation and the category lists. They report the links fine, just no text value. Running the same SESs on my competitors site, his categories read just fine. Any ideas why all the link text on the home page would be a problem? Is it burried too deep in tables? I'm totally lost.

Lhotch · 09-24-2006, 01:48 PM

I would have to know more about the simulator to even guess as to why. Do you have trans_id turned off? Are you using the SEO mod?

SkGold · 09-24-2006, 02:18 PM

I checked your site through Poodle Predictor
It looks fine for me.

gregbatch · 09-24-2006, 08:41 PM

Yes, looks fine through Poodle, but Poodle isn't as strick as Google. I'm not using the SEO mod, just worried about the home page right now.

http://tools.summitmedia.co.uk/spider/

juven14 · 09-24-2006, 11:45 PM

I don't know if this might help, but is it possible that the structure is causing it to skip the body?

If it's possible you might replace <html> with
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">, I think your page will validate better at any case.

gregbatch · 09-25-2006, 08:29 AM

Thanks for the suggestion, but it didn't help.

If it was just one SES I wouldn't worry. But I get the same results on a few of them.

juven14 · 09-25-2006, 10:52 AM

My site seems to work fine through that spider simulator, I was just trying to see if that may have been the difference.

Can you revert to the default template and try again, all of my test sites work fine with this simulator, and these include 3.1.4 & 3.1.5.

gregbatch · 09-25-2006, 11:47 AM

Thanks John. At least I have a benchmark. I'll try loading the default and see what happens.

gregbatch · 09-25-2006, 02:03 PM

I found it, though, I don't understand it.

I was echoing a variable in the meta description. The variable added data from the referring page to the beginning of the description text. This worked fine, but was fouling up the SES, and most likely some of the search engines.

Rather than using a standard echo, is there a Smarty alternative to displaying a variable that's passed in the url?

Lhotch · 09-25-2006, 02:11 PM

http://smarty.php.net/manual/en/lang...les.smarty.php

09-24-2006, 11:54 AM	#1
gregbatch Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 172 Rep Power: 16	Possible search engine problem I use a number of search engine simulators to evaluate my pages. When I run my home page on a couple of them, they report only a few words in the body. They seem to be blind to the text in all the links, such as navigation and the category lists. They report the links fine, just no text value. Running the same SESs on my competitors site, his categories read just fine. Any ideas why all the link text on the home page would be a problem? Is it burried too deep in tables? I'm totally lost. __________________ Greg 3.1.4 Designer

09-24-2006, 01:48 PM	#2
Lhotch Coder Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 4,574 Rep Power: 111	I would have to know more about the simulator to even guess as to why. Do you have trans_id turned off? Are you using the SEO mod? __________________ Larry.

09-24-2006, 02:18 PM	#3
SkGold Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Best city in the World � Calgary, Canada Posts: 468 Rep Power: 24	I checked your site through Poodle Predictor It looks fine for me. __________________ Thanks, Sergey Bargain Finder in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Calgary Business Directory V3.1.10 Dev - Calgary Classifieds V3.1.10 Dev - Calgary Real Estate V3.1.10 Dev - Calgary Used Cars V3.1.10 Dev - Calgary Rent V3.1.10 Dev - Calgary Dating V3.1.5 Dev A website without well-done Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimization is as good as non-existent.

09-24-2006, 08:41 PM	#4
gregbatch Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 172 Rep Power: 16	Yes, looks fine through Poodle, but Poodle isn't as strick as Google. I'm not using the SEO mod, just worried about the home page right now. http://tools.summitmedia.co.uk/spider/ __________________ Greg 3.1.4 Designer

09-24-2006, 11:45 PM	#5
juven14 Moderator Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Texas Posts: 2,218 Rep Power: 61	I don't know if this might help, but is it possible that the structure is causing it to skip the body? If it's possible you might replace <html> with <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">, I think your page will validate better at any case. __________________ John Snyder PHP Developer

09-25-2006, 08:29 AM	#6
gregbatch Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 172 Rep Power: 16	Thanks for the suggestion, but it didn't help. If it was just one SES I wouldn't worry. But I get the same results on a few of them. __________________ Greg 3.1.4 Designer Last edited by gregbatch; 09-25-2006 at 08:46 AM.

09-25-2006, 10:52 AM	#7
juven14 Moderator Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Texas Posts: 2,218 Rep Power: 61	My site seems to work fine through that spider simulator, I was just trying to see if that may have been the difference. Can you revert to the default template and try again, all of my test sites work fine with this simulator, and these include 3.1.4 & 3.1.5. __________________ John Snyder PHP Developer

09-25-2006, 11:47 AM	#8
gregbatch Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 172 Rep Power: 16	Thanks John. At least I have a benchmark. I'll try loading the default and see what happens. __________________ Greg 3.1.4 Designer

09-25-2006, 02:03 PM	#9
gregbatch Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 172 Rep Power: 16	I found it, though, I don't understand it. I was echoing a variable in the meta description. The variable added data from the referring page to the beginning of the description text. This worked fine, but was fouling up the SES, and most likely some of the search engines. Rather than using a standard echo, is there a Smarty alternative to displaying a variable that's passed in the url? __________________ Greg 3.1.4 Designer

09-25-2006, 02:11 PM	#10
Lhotch Coder Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 4,574 Rep Power: 111	http://smarty.php.net/manual/en/lang...les.smarty.php __________________ Larry.

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