ASP, Java and the rest.

Establishing optimisation

[Skylo]

Hey everyone. I know I should have maybe posted this somewhere else but I am new to web development and this is quite general. OK I Know that spiders don't read Java but do they read ASP and php etc. If not why. I don't even know why they don't read Java. Is it because they are server side related. Many thanks for any replys

[chris_f]

Hi Skylo,

Spiders can read pages with .asp and .php extentions. However, they do not (like a normal web browser) read the server-side code. They only read what the server sends back to the browser.

Chris

[Skylo]

So you can say that if you have your page in html that will be read but your side and top and footer menus that are in .asp won't be read. SE's will only see the html and nothing else. You see I only ask as I am busy optimising a page and have keywords in those .asp menus. Will they not matter if in an .asp menu?

[chris_f]

Hi Skylo,

I think your missing me on this one. Ignore the file extention. Google DOES crawl ASP pages. However, like web browsers it will crawl the client side of the asp script NOT the server side. Here is a tip to see what the spider will see.

1. Visit the page you wish to test. (e.g. www.domain.com/default.asp)
2. In your web browser view the source
(e.g. in IE - click the view menu and then click source)

The code that is show (usually in notepad) is exactly what the spider will see. Once again, ignore the ASP extention.

Chris

[Skylo]

Thanks Chris_f that does make sense. So I can now conclude from what you told me that the spiders will see something like this: <!--#include virtual="/includes/top_search.inc" --> then it will not be able to see keywords in that menu that you have tried to optimise for.

Thanks a million chris_f

[chris_f]

Skylo,

I still think your missing me on this one.

The spiders will not see
<!--#include virtual="/includes/top_search.inc" -->

they will see the contents of the file in it's place.

Chris

[Skylo]

I'm so sorry Chris_f and thanks for helping me out on this one. I can just imagine you wherever you are fuming like my maths teacher used to;-) I can say now that I understand. See stupid ass newbie (me) was going into dreamweaver and just clicking on the asp and thought you meant that code. Fortunately a co-worker laughed and showed me what you meant. I see the light now. Sorry to be a pain:)
(105 posts and 99% of them have been questions) haha, I truly knew nothing before coming to these forums.

[chris_f]

Skylo,

Don't worry. Everyone has to start somewhere. You just happen to have found the best place :).

Chris.