Questions about Section Targeting

de-emphasizing menus, etc.

[beggers]

Each of my pages include a fairly long menu in the left column of a table. Because of the way this table is constructed, the menu items appear in the HTML code before the text of the article.

Should I use section targeting to ignore that long menu? Then I could assign a higher weight to the article itself. I've never used these features before so any advice would be greatly appreciated!

By the way, does the Google SE spider also follow the section targeting commands?

Thanks!

[ann]

That sounds like an excellent idea for you.
I use the tags on some of my pages and it works like a charm.

[milanmk]

Thanks ann

Even i was looking for someone to approve Section Targeting.

Can we emphasize any content on our pages?

[hunderdown]

Can we emphasize any content on our page?

My understanding is that if you use it deceptively, you could get into trouble. In other words, if you have a long page about field hockey, with a short section about a famous player's bout with mesothelioma, and you use section targeting on that sentence, you are potentially going to get in trouble.

Do a search on the AdSense Help area for basic guidelines, but as the OP asked, you can use it to exclude menus and such. You can use it to emphasize one paragraph that has the keywords related to the page, with the rest of the page on the same subject, but not mentioning them. You can use it to exclude a paragraph that goes off on a tangent and includes some unrelated keywords.

And to answer the OP's other question, the Google Search bot pays no attention to these tags. They only work within AdSense.

[jetteroheller]

menu items appear in the HTML code before the text of the article

Why do You use a table for this?

[beggers]

The same menu appears on hundreds of pages using a server "include". It appears on the left side, which is the optimal location for easy navigation of the site. The best way to do this is with a simple table.

[jetteroheller]

What has the location to do with the position in the html source text?

[beggers]

The left column is the first defined cell in a table and therefore that code appears first in the HTML code. The article itself is in the second cell, which appears next in the HTML.

This isn't important, though. If you're really interested, try building some tables and examine the HTML code.

[hunderdown]

I think j is suggesting that you could use CSS or something to have the code in a different order form the order in which it appears on the page.

I don't know. I don't know how to use CSS myself.

[milanmk]

Thanks hunderdown for explaining in detail about do's and dont's.

Regarding CSS, i think its difficult to change the order in which it appears on the page through CSS.

[Oney52]

Whats is section targeting?

And what does it?

[annej]

I use CSS to put the left side navigation at the end of the HTML. It makes sense for good site building as your navigation list can confuse the search engines on what the page is really about. The most important key words should be near the top of the document not a list of links. So it's much better to have the article or whatever the content is in the upper part of the HRML.

There is a CSS forum here on Webmaster World to help you get started.

I too wonder what Section Targeting is? Maybe it is an easier way. Could someone tell us about it?

[novice]

I too wonder what Section Targeting is? Maybe it is an easier way. Could someone tell us about it?

[google.com...]

[jetteroheller]

Regarding CSS, i think its difficult to change the order in which it appears on the page through CSS

<div style=top:0;left:300>
The content
</div>

<div style=top:0;left:0>
The navigation
</div>

And where is this difficult?
Hint: add position:absolut in the CSS.

[annej]

Ahh, I see. Section Targeting for AdSense. I still like to use CSS to control the order of things in the HTML.

I get pretty well targetted ads for the most part but may look into Section Targeting for some problem pages.

How is section targeting working for those who are using it?