Drop down size

Any way round?

[Skylo]

Hi everyone. I have a question concerning size. I have drop downs on my site that made the size of the landing page too big. Now they were in layers. We changed them to java and the size was drastically reduced.
However since doing this bout 2 months ago our rankings have dropped drastically. So I want to bring back the layers and wonder if there is anyway to reduce the size so as to keep the layer drop downs.

Thanks everyone;)

[edited by: Marcia at 8:57 am (utc) on May 23, 2003]

[Alternative Future]

Could you be a little more specific ;)

Are we talking select boxes [drop down]? Changed them to Java [?] this is where you loose me!

-gs

[Nick_W]

Sounds to me like you had some pretty basic HTML for your page (which spiders like) then changed it for some scripts?

Spiders don't really like JS, this may well be the problem.

You'll have to be much more specific though, and if you're going to post code please keep it minimal [webmasterworld.com] ;-)

Nick

[Skylo]

Sorry Alternative. Still getting to grips with the world of the internet. Having a hard time explaining myself. I mean when you get to my landing page we have our navbars at the top of the page that are categorised to help you find parts of the site. When you mouse over say the "widgets" bar a menu drops down with individual bars that link to "blue widgets" "red widgets" etc.

Now when you mouse over a nav bar the drop down menu that would result was made from layers and now we have changed it to java as it was too heavy on the page as a menu made from layers.

Hope that helps

[Skylo]

This is the format we had for our previous menus:

<div id="widgetmenu" style="position:absolute; width:94px; height:115px; z-index:1; visibility:hidden; top: 76px;" onMouseOver="MM_showHideLayers('widgetmenu','','show')" onMouseDown="MM_showHideLayers('widgetmenu','','show')" onMouseMove="MM_showHideLayers('widgetmenu','','show')" onMouseOut="MM_showHideLayers('widgetmenu','','hide')">

I think this is the java we use now:

<td height="18" align="center" nowrap bgcolor="#EFE4D9" onMouseOver="document.all.widgetcell.bgColor='#DCCCB9';" onMouseOut="document.all.widgetcell.bgColor='#EFE4D9';" id="kenyacell" name="widgetcell" class="kenya"><img src="/images/shim.gif" width="10" height="1"><a href="/widget/widget-widgetA.asp" class="menuheader">widget</a><img src="/images/shim.gif" width="10" height="1"></td>

I hope this helps otherwise I am at an end. I will just have to keep with java. I hope also this is not too much code to send on one particular post.

[Alternative Future]

Don't worry Skylo I still have problems explaining myself at the best of times ;) But like Nick_W says people like me tend to fill in the blanks and come up with nonsense :)

Right I think I am with you now - your navigation when using layers affected the size of the site in kilobytes rather than real estate (viewable area), you then moved onto Java *or* JavaScript which as Nick_W says is not a favourable thing with SE's.

Moving back to layers will obviously help your rankings again for SE's picking up that keywords/content etc.

How much larger in size (kB) are we talking is it a significant amount? I am not well up to speed in HTML layers I work more with Java but what I fail to understand is this dramatic amount of size that concerns you are we talking something between 5-10kB or more? And when using these layers are you working with basic HTML <tr><td> or actual graphics as the backgrounds?

[edit]Ok will have a look at that post you just put up[/edit]

-gs

[Nick_W]

Moving back to layers will obviously help your rankings again for SE's picking up that keywords/content etc

Well, I'm not so sure, but then you didn't see Skylos next post did you?

Both look ugly but spiderable to me, I think you're just experiencing some Update Dominic fluctuations like the rest of us, dont worry about it, just keep building those pages!

PS, if you wanna make better code, start reading the librarys for CSS and HTML/Browsers Forums ;-)

Nick

[Skylo]

Haha. Alternative_future I have a web team and don't know squat myself about the web. Since coming here I have learnt a hell of a lot but am still not very well versed;-)

When we were using layers the size of the page was 70 kb. After implementing the java it has dropped down to 40kb.
There are no graphics as a background I just have a lot of links on those dropdowns as the website is quite big.

We were using basic html with those drop downs but used just a tiny bit of java to change the mouse over colour.
I await your response:)

[Nick_W]

>>I have a web team

Get a competent one. These guys don't know what they're doing.

>70kb

Well, you need to work at exporting all that inline CSS to an external file for starters....

Really, 70kb = 30/35 with a little professional tweaking.

Nick

[Alternative Future]

To be honest I cannot see anything that should affect the SE's here as you are using <td>, which shows the widget to the SE I assume your <div>, also does the same. Also from what I can see you are talking about saving perhaps 1-2kb yeah? If this were the case I personally wouldn’t worry about that I would use the best one for the SE's regardless of the fact that my size(kB) increases by such a slight margin.

But anyway in answer to your question on reducing the size all I can see that might be able to help you is - Right I might be off in the wrong direction here - but:

Previous version could be reduced by replacing the inline style with a ref to an external style sheet class="myInlineAttributes", this would get rid of position:absolute; width:94px; height:115px; z-index:1; visibility:hidden; top: 76px; again I might consider replacing the onMouseOver with cursor:hand this would allow us to remove the ref to onMouseMove then when they move out of the element/layer in question that will call on onMouseOut which removes the view.
But what we seem to be doing here is saving us very little kilobytes is this worth doing? Also from your snips the end of the previous code is missing I think i.e. the </div> what lies in between the beginning and the end? is this where the keyword lies?

HTH,

-gs

[edit]What I get for not checking inbetween composing this mail is a post behind the times[/edit]

[Alternative Future]

What exactly is your job title Skylo the medium that contacts WW for information to pass onto the WebTeam are they too afraid to ask themselves? They might at least compose the posts for you then this way you shall learn proper coding syntax and perhaps even the difference between Java and JavaScript *Big Difference*

And yeah Nick I never saw the previous post #5 before posting i tend to have this window on reply while doing other things and thinking on how to word the post so that people will understand :( I'll learn hehe

Anyway again I agree with Nick get the pro's to do it Skylo sit down with them and learn - not being pedantic just sensible - we never let our Juniors do our work for us until we feel they are confident enough.

Come work with us perhaps we could teach you a few things hehe

-gs

[Skylo]

Yeah, Alternaive_future. I am actually the bosses nephew and have just been drafted in by him to give us some leverage in the SEO world which is obviously becoming more important everyday. I am extremely young and so far have only only one certificate behind me at the moment. In fact before I came to these forums and the job I am in I only used computers for school projects. I was ignorant to the world of the SE. I just refer as well to my uncles company as mine as it just cuts out a lot of explaining like what I am doing now as you did ask the question;-)

Bottom line is that they make the pages and I try to play an SEO role in the whole thing. The team knows a bit but already I feel I know a lot.

So the goal is to grow from here with the help of the forums and all the good people here. Hopefully next year I can attend a conference or two and teach you guys whats going on......hehe;-)

But thanks guys I am sure I will see you again on a thread or two.
I also only read your edited message and see that I did leave out the </div> sorry. I have to go now but will be back

[Alternative Future]

A phrase that springs to mind is "It's not what I know, it's who I know" *or* "It's not what you know, but rather who you know" hehe ;)

We are forever learning Skylo and I am sure I will learn a few things off you one day as you will me!

If there ever comes a point in life where you think you know it all, it's time to retire (senile dementia is kicking in) ;)

Best of luck in your learning curve am sure you will do well...

-gs