Using include files for headers + footers

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Using include files for headers + footers

ukgimp

2:18 pm on Aug 13, 2002 (gmt 0)

I am in the process of designing a new interface which will have a common header that for layout and navigational reasons (logon, help etc)will have to be quite complicated. The main text of the page will be the meat.

Is is a good idea to use includes for the header, so that if the page is requested the SE gets meat only. This will be a include only and not a server side include. Does this make sense?

Cheers

JuDDer

2:31 pm on Aug 13, 2002 (gmt 0)

This will be a include only and not a server side include. Does this make sense?

Nope - makes no sense to me!
Can you elaborate a little?

korkus2000

2:39 pm on Aug 13, 2002 (gmt 0)

If your saying it doesn't get the head portion of the page this is a bad idea IMHO. Titles are extremely important. I use server side includes and find they work extremely well. I just set up variables for all the meta data so it is unique per page while keeping the ability to have navigation and design on one file.

[edited by: korkus2000 at 2:39 pm (utc) on Aug. 13, 2002]

Sinner_G

2:39 pm on Aug 13, 2002 (gmt 0)

From a SEO point of view, it does make sense, I'm just not sure how you are going to realise it technically?

ukgimp

2:57 pm on Aug 13, 2002 (gmt 0)

OK here goes

<body>

Main content of page
</body>

I know your going to say use <div>'s instead but I dont have that much say on this particular thing. I would love to use <div>'s and do all the positining externally but people are stuck int their ways.

So my query is this. The user should see all the navigation and all the content but the request from a SE will only really see the content as they dont call the exteranl file, Similar to exteranal JS and CSS. Is this correct or am I off beam with an idea that could cause problems.

Cheers

korkus2000

2:59 pm on Aug 13, 2002 (gmt 0)

SEs will see it. You also want SEs to see the links for the rest of your site anyway so they can be found and spidered.

ukgimp

3:06 pm on Aug 13, 2002 (gmt 0)

Thanks Korkus

The links would be along the lines of home, login, back, about and help which I would include on some of the main content sections to ensure they were found. The main content would have its own document link structure along a theme.

Cheers

DaveN

3:08 pm on Aug 13, 2002 (gmt 0)

ukgimp

Korkus is right the SE's will see this, create JS headers and footers the se's will not see them.

or create a file in a diferent folder /nosee/header.html and use the robots.txt so that the SE can't spider that folder.

DaveN

rewboss

3:28 pm on Aug 13, 2002 (gmt 0)

I know your going to say use <div>'s instead but I dont have that much say on this particular thing. I would love to use <div>'s and do all the positining externally but people are stuck int their ways.

There may be excellent reasons for putting the navigation header very early on in the file. Imagine a very slow connection. Now imagine having to wait for the entire page to download before you can login.

One of the most persuasive arguments against placing an entire page in a table was precisely that it meant the entire page had to download before any part of it was visible, which in the real world of crummy dialup connections, timeouts, internet congestion and the like was far from ideal.