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I've been doing some of my own research into SEO and optimizing my own site as best I can, but I've come up against a hurdle I can't get around too easily. My reading so far indicates that the first 25-30 words a spider sees of a web page hold the most 'weight' WRT search engine placement (among other aspects of course).
Having recently fed my front page to a 'search engine emulator' (basically, a script that removes all the tags in a page, leaving the readable text) I've discovered that, instead of feasting on the keyword-rich body of text, visiting spiders are presented with a list of my menu options first. Naturally, after 20 or 30 not-very-related menu words, they decide that my site wasn't a texturally fulfilling meal and move on.
How can I ensure that they get fed the 'gourmet' content first, without re-writing the layout of the whole site?
You'll find several discussions about moving your content to the top of your code here. Some ideas:
css positioning
left hand nav menu w/ the "table trick"
right hand nav menu
Use the site search at the top of the screen on these or Do a google site:www.WebmasterWorld.com search to find threads on these topics.
Good luck,
rmjvol
> Naturally, after 20 or 30 not-very-related menu words, they decide that my site wasn't a texturally fulfilling meal and move on.
Just to clarify: Once Googlebot gets a file the whole of that file is digested. The first few words are believed to receive extra weight, but all are read and all receive some weight.
I redid my site using CSS to put the div containing the menu at the bottom of the file, it was hard work but had many benefits.
