SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible

To overcome this, many web designers externalizeany JavaScript that’s included on the web site.

Externalizing the JavaScript creates a situation where it is actually run from an external location,

such as a file on your web server. To externalize your JavaScript:

1. Copy the code, beginning at the starting tags, and paste it into a Notepad file.


2. Save the Notepad file as filename.js.


3. Upload the file to your web server.


4. Create a reference on your web page to the external JavaScript code. The reference
   should be placed where the JavaScript will appear and might look like this:
   

This is just one of the solutions you can use to prevent JavaScript from becoming a problem for

your SEO efforts. There are many others, and depending on your needs you should explore some

of those.

Sometimes, people use JavaScript as a way to hide content or links from a search engine.

However, search crawlers can read JavaScript and most can even follow the links that are

in JavaScript. So if you try to hide content or links behind JavaScript, you run the risk of having your

site labeled as search engine spam. There’s more about search engine spam in Chapter 17.

Flash

Flash is another of those technologies that some users absolutely hate. That’s because Flash, though

very cool, is resource intensive. It causes pages to load slower, and users often get stuck on an open-

ing Flash page and can’t move forward until the Flash has finished executing. If the user is in a hurry,

it’s a frustrating thing to deal with.

Flash is also a nightmare when it comes to SEO. A Flash page can stop a web crawler in its tracks,

and once stopped, the crawler won’t resume indexing the site. Instead, it will simply move on to

the next web site on its list.

The easiest way to overcome Flash problems is simply not use it. But despite the difficulties with

search rankings, some organizations need to use Flash. If yours is one of them, the Flash can be

coded in HTML and an option can be added to test for the ability to see Flash before the Flash is

executed. However, there’s some debate over whether or not this is an “acceptable” SEO practice,

so before you implement this type of strategy in an effort to improve your SEO effectiveness, take

the time to research the method.

Dynamic ASP

Most of the sites you’ll encounter on the Web are static web pages.These sites don’t change beyond the

regular updates by a webmaster. On the other hand, dynamic web pagesare web pages that are created

on the fly according to preferences that users specify in a form or menu. The sites can be created

using a variety of different programming technologies including dynamic ASP.The problem with these

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Building Your Site for SEO 3

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