8 replies to this topic

[webstream]

Would a CSS dropdown menu system going across your page header have any negative effect on your overall page ranking? The site in this situation covers several different main keyword categories in the top menu and the dropdown submenu links are all pages within that specific category.

Thanks for any insights.

[Randy]

It shouldn't have any adverse effects. Of course the devil is always in the details, so it could depend upon how the drop downs are coded.

[webstream]

It shouldn't have any adverse effects. Of course the devil is always in the details, so it could depend upon how the drop downs are coded.

The site uses the CSS drop down tab menu from dynamicdrive.com. This uses the normal HTML hyperlinks in the page header. My concern is with so many "rich" links in the page header it may be difficult for the search engines to determine what these pages are really about. Let me know if you think I am wacky and should not worry about it.

Thanks!

[Randy]

If it's the script I think it is you'll be fine. Basically as long as the links are in plain old html that's not being written by a javascript function you're good to go. Using JS to produce the visual effect you want is fine. The links themselves just need to be plain old html.

Don't worry about the search engines sorting out what the page is about, they'll get it. Though if the nav elements ares at the top of your code you'll want to make smart use of your meta description to get a really good snippet showing for each page.

[webstream]

If it's the script I think it is you'll be fine. Basically as long as the links are in plain old html that's not being written by a javascript function you're good to go. Using JS to produce the visual effect you want is fine. The links themselves just need to be plain old html.

Don't worry about the search engines sorting out what the page is about, they'll get it. Though if the nav elements ares at the top of your code you'll want to make smart use of your meta description to get a really good snippet showing for each page.

Randy, thanks for your insights.

Part of my concern is I made the change to the new menu system about 3 months ago and the home page, as well as all pages have dropped about 50% in traffic from Google alone. Some keyword phrases where I was on the 1st page for some very competitive generic keyword phrases I am now no where to be found. I am really surprised it has not rebounded by now. I assume the major menu change is the reason for the decline. I do have quality incoming links (not quantity) and I use well defined title tags and meta descriptions. So I am sort at a loss as too why the site has not regained most of its original rank positions. Since I still get a decent amount of traffic I assume I am not in the aging delay situation.

[Jill]

It could be a coincidence that you lost traffic when you made the change. Did you add a lot more links in your nav at the time too? What other changes happened?

Perhaps you need to simplify your navigation if you are thinking it's confusing to bots, it might be for users as well.

[webstream]

It could be a coincidence that you lost traffic when you made the change. Did you add a lot more links in your nav at the time too? What other changes happened?

Perhaps you need to simplify your navigation if you are thinking it's confusing to bots, it might be for users as well.

Hi Jill,

There were some sections that were 2 subfolders deep below the root that I changed to 1 subfolder below the root. I knew those would suffer some reduction in visits. I have added several new pages over the past 3 months but not all at once. I don't think the UI is confusing to the visitors but I am concerned that having all the links bundled in the page header is hurting by page rank, especially for the home page. I am started to think I should go through another re-design and remove all the dropdowns and put every submenu group in its own section again.

I noticed you're now using some sort of dropdown menu system on your home page (I didn't look to see if it was JS or CSS based) but your menus really seem to stay on one consistent main theme SEO/SEM.

[Jill]

There's certainly nothing inherently wrong with having all your main category and subcategory pages available via your main navigation menu on each page of the site.

As long as it makes sense for your visitors and isn't too overwhelming, then it's highly unlikely it would be a bad thing for the search engines, in fact, it should be quite the opposite.

[webstream]

Thanks Jill & Randy for your expert input. I'm still puzzled by this, but I will keep trying somethings to see if it improves.