Site Menus and Search Engines

[Ditzy]

Hi,

On my 1st site I've used a horizontal site menu which stretches across the top of each page with each individual item in a table cell.

My 2nd site has a vertical site menu down the left hand side of each page again using a table cell for each item.

I've just started using Macromedia Fireworks and have made "buttons" for my 3rd site as it's only small. I've put the buttons in a vertical menu down the left hand side of each page with each button in a table cell.

Ignoring what actually looks the nicest for the moment is there a way of presenting your site menu that looks best to search engine spiders?

I'm about to start delving in to Fireworks to design some more professional looking menus so it would be handy to know if there's anything I should avoid.

Cheers guys

Sue
Sue

[accelerator]

For search engines, use standard text links, don't use button images, don't use Javascript for anything such as pop-ups.

When deciding on layout, generally speaking the earlier the menu code is appearing in your html, the more notice search engines can take of it.

Rgds

Accelerator

[essdeekay]

Hi Sue,

One way around it, so I am told, is to but basic text links across the bottom of each page, ALWAYS having a link to your sitemap there.

Someone will correct me if I am wrong!

Kind regards

Simon

[Ditzy]

Hi Accelerator and Simon,

Thanks for taking the time to reply ... good advice

Cheers Sue

P.S. No danger of me including Javascript at the mo unless it's contained in merchant affiliate links

[eskimo]

You might also want to look at ditching the tables in favour of some lighter code. It's hardly vital but it is good practice to keep your code as efficent as possible. It also has the benefit of making a higher percentage of your code about the topic rather than the coding.

[Ditzy]

Cheers Eskimo.

Got a techy mate who hand codes and is always telling me to ditch tables but until I get time to learn more about CSS I'm stuck with them.

Thanks for the advice tho