9 replies to this topic

[hypntzd3]

Hi

I have a page that is ranked number one in the SE on its keywords. I have a new layout to the page as well as content that would replace the old home page. I know I may see a drop in my rankings initially, but is there any thing that I really should be concerned about when swapping out one home page for another?

Incidentally the new home page is optimized much better for the search engines and the layout is more user friendly...not to mention new functionality.

Can some one advise?

Hypntzd3

[SpamHelp]

View the source of your page. Google and other search engines give importance to the first number of characters, so its important that you plan your design well in such a way that things like the menu (which would most probably have key phrases) is near the top of your HTML source. In fact, the more key phrases you have at the top, the better.

Also, it would be a good idea to put in the alt tag for the logo image and put in a number of keywords. The logo is usually near the top of the HTML source.

[torka]

Erm... the consensus around here of those who have tested it seems to be that SEs (Google, at least) do not consider the ALT tag of an image unless the image is also a link (A HREF). So unless the logo on the index page is a link to somewhere else (and where would it logically link to?), packing the ALT with keywords isn't going to do any good, if I've understood the experts here correctly.

--Torka

[SpamHelp]

It is very important to link the logo to the root of the domain, with each paging giving a small PR vote to the root. Most sites _are_ like this

[torka]

Sure, I do that myself on interior site pages. But in this case, I thought we were talking about the index page, which already is the default page displayed when somebody types in the domain URL without a file name indicated.

So, you would do this on the index page as well, even though people are already on the index page to begin with? Which would just cause the index page to reload if somebody clicked on the link? Does that mean the page is simply passing a portion of its own PR back to itself? If not, where does the PR "go"?

Clearly, I'm not understanding something correctly.

--Torka "and I thought I was confused before..."

[qwerty]

It's a pretty common practice, from what I've seen, although I don't think I've ever done it myself. If your logo is part of an include file and you want it to link to your home page, I guess you have to do it on every page.

But for the individual logo file to link to the home page, even on the home page, I think it's basically just an excuse to take advantage of the alt attribute. I doubt anyone gets in trouble for doing something like that.

[torka]

Okay, I can see if it's part of an include and it would be more of a pain in the patootie to make a separate include or code a whole separate page.

Otherwise, do you really get enough of a boost from keywords in the ALT attribute on that one page to make it worthwhile? I had always believed from a usability standpoint it was better to not have a link that simply reloads the same page -- users expect links will take them somewhere else and may be confused by a link that simply refreshes the page they're on.

Ah, yes, I knew I'd read it somewhere (see point #1 in the referenced Jakob Nielsen article): http://www.useit.com...box/991003.html

(Yes, I know this is an SEO forum, not a usability forum...)

--Torka

[qwerty]

I agree with you, Torka. Like I said, I'm pretty sure I've never done it myself, but I can see the SEO (and not usability) logic in doing it.

[SearchRank]

I have a page that is ranked number one in the SE on its keywords.  I have a new layout to the page as well as content that would replace the old home page.  I know I may see a drop in my rankings initially, but is there any thing that I really should be concerned about when swapping out one home page for another?

Back to the original question that was posted here - it is hard to say without actually seeing the two pages. I have seen site re-designs that gave a boost in rankings and others that were devastating. The most important thing to do is to keep the title tag the same as that is the most important element of a particular web page regarding SEO. I would also keep the body copy the same as long as it was good copy. If you were ranking well before with these two elements, then you could very possibly continue to rank well by keeping them the same.

Only time will tell once you release the new page. Good luck!

[SearchRank]

Also, it would be a good idea to put in the alt tag for the logo image and put in a number of keywords. The logo is usually near the top of the HTML source.

Good to use an alt tag for the logo but alt tags are not for stuffing keywords into but rather to describe the image. IMO a logo can be a repeat of the title tag. For example, if title tag is ...

<title>Blue and Red Widgets - Company, Inc.</title>

Then a good alt tag would be

alt="Company, Inc. - Blue and Red Widgets"

A bad alt tag would be something like this ...

alt="blue widgets red widgets big widgets small widgets, etc, etc."

One runs ino the danger of spamming if using alt tags to stuff keywords.