duplicate page solution

[healer]

Ok...here's the problem. I have a client who I'm helping with his optimization a bit. His site was originally designed with frames (uggh) and a dynamic navigation menu on the left.

It's the dynamic navigation menu that's causing me problems. Originally the menu starts out with about 7 links. If you click on one of them, the page loads in the main window and the navigation menu reloads showing more links under the section that was clicked on. If you click on one of the sub-links, the page is loaded, and the menu reloads showing that link highlighted. The problem is several of the main category links have links to the same pages as sub-links. So, if you were under one of main categories and clicked on a sub-link that link would highlight, but if you were under a different category and you clicked on a link to the same page, that link would highlight even though both links are pointing to the same page.

Now, since I'm making all of these pages static, I have no way of duplicating this, yet the site owner wants to the site to look and function basically the same.

So, the only solution I see is to make duplicate pages for each of the sublinks so they are actually linking to different pages. That way, I can simulate the same navigation menu.

Ok...all that said, I know I can't just have duplicate pages or the engines will hate that. So, how much would you all recommend needs to be changed on each page so that they are seen as different pages by the engines? Or, do you have any better recommendations?

[Brett_Tabke]

If I am understanding the setup correctly and you have access to ssi, I would make the menu's into stand alone ssi pages and just include them in the content. The subpages use the "opened sub-menu" look and the higher up use the bare "category" look that you describe.

[healer]

Hmmm...I don't think you quite understand.

Here is the deal. This is a health insurance site. Three of the top level category links go to Individual, Family, and Self-Employed. When any of the top links are clicked on, the main page for that section loads into the main area, and a list of sub-links load underneath whichever link was clicked on. The problem is that all of the sublinks that load underneath which ever of the above three links are clicked on are all pointing to the same page.

So, the same sub-link target page could have as many as three different menu configurations. One where it is shown with a list of other sub-links under Individual, another where it is shown as underneath Family, and another shown underneath Self-employed. Hence my problem.

Any help on how to overcome this would be very appreciated.

[theperlyking]

I'm trying to understand too, you are saying you have a menu that when one top level link is clicked on looks like this

-+Individual
-sublink1
-sublink2
-sublink3
-+family
-+self-employed

Are you saying that sublinks 1,2 and 3 all should point to the same page?

Sorry i'm finding it hard to visualise what you mean :)

edit: re-reading your posts is it the highlighting you are struggling to reproduce more than the actual structure?

[healer]

Ok...I'll use theperlykings example to illustrate better what I'm talking about.

You start out with something like:

Individual
Family
Self-Employed

If individual is clicked on it becomes:

Individual
-sublink1
-sublink2
-sublink3
Family
Self-Employed

However, if Family were clicked on it becomes:

Individual
Family
-sublink1
-sublink2
-sublink3
Self-Employed

And Self-Employed:

Individual
Family
Self-Employed
-sublink1
-sublink2
-sublink3

The problem is that sublink1 from Individual, Family, and Self-Employed goes to the same page. Sublink 2 from all categories goes to the 1 single page, and sublink3 goes to a single page regardless which category it is under.

So, currently depending on how the page is accessed (from under Individual, Family, or Self-Employed), the menu will be different, but the rest of the content will be exactly the same.

So do I create 3 near identical pages and if so, how much should I change them to keep them from actually being seen as identical by the engines and causing a penalty to be assessed, but at the same time, looking the same, or basically the same so as not to affect the feel of the site?

Am I making any sense??? I'm starting to confuse myself!

[Steph]

did you try with named anchor ??

So you create the named nchor, and after the sublink point at the good named anchor and not just to the page. You can have as named anchor you want (one per sublink for example), and when you can visit a page since "individual/sublink1" (anchor sublink1.html#individual), you can visit the same page since family/sublink1 (link sublink1.html#family).

I don't know if i'm clear enough (i'm not always sure of understand what i say :) )

[Xoc]

The easiest solution is to create duplicate pages, but use robots.txt and/or meta tags to keep the spider from reading the duplicates. Leave one open to the spider for indexing.

[knighty]

You can use layers to have a dynamic menu which will operate in exactly the same way as the origional only you won't need to reload any pages or creates duplictes :)

[theperlyking]

Ahh, I understand it now :)

Knightys suggestion might be a good solution. Take a look at dynamicdrive.com - you might be able to find a menu there that you can use.

[healer]

Thanks everyone. I'll probably just go with Xoc on this and use the meta and robots.txt exclusions. I hate using them because so many engines seem to deal with them..ehem...less than faithfully, but I've already changed this guys site so much that I'm pushing the envelope of what he is going to let me do.