I thought some here might be interested in my latest Search Engine Land article:
Diagnosing the Health of Your Website
It's all about how one way to diagnose certain problems your website might have is by viewing it through Google's text cache.
I tried to make it a fun by using a health analogy. Let me know what you think!
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Diagnosing The Health Of Your Website
Started by
Jill
, Apr 24 2008 03:26 PM
28 replies to this topic
#2
Bradley
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Posted 24 April 2008 - 05:35 PM
Nicely done, Jill!
I wish I'd read it a year or so ago. It took me the longest time to figure out that many image links weren't visible in cache due to lack of an alt attribute.
I wish I'd read it a year or so ago. It took me the longest time to figure out that many image links weren't visible in cache due to lack of an alt attribute.
#3
tina
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Posted 24 April 2008 - 08:34 PM
QUOTE(Bradley @ Apr 24 2008, 06:35 PM) 
It took me the longest time to figure out that many image links weren't visible in cache due to lack of an alt attribute.
Hi, Bradley.
You might also want to consider including title="" attributes for images as well.
In Firefox, when you mouse over an image, a descriptive attribute may not appear unless you have included a title tag.
Does anyone understand how image alt="" and title="" attributes work with screen readers?
Tina
#4
purplebear
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Posted 24 April 2008 - 08:48 PM
QUOTE(Bradley @ Apr 24 2008, 06:35 PM)
Nicely done, Jill!
I wish I'd read it a year or so ago. It took me the longest time to figure out that many image links weren't visible in cache due to lack of an alt attribute.
I wish I'd read it a year or so ago. It took me the longest time to figure out that many image links weren't visible in cache due to lack of an alt attribute.
Very nice:) Was surprised my site (home page at least) was pretty healthy in regards to the four warning signs of poor health. lol
Liked your health analogy. Am gonna have to make a search about the alt and title attributes both being used. I've noticed a small amount of my affiliate links have recently included both of them in them but the vast majority don't. (but then a lot of them don't include the alt or width and height for images, either. I place them in.)
So, if ya have all 4 of them......site must be in critical condition or on life support?
#5
tina
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Posted 24 April 2008 - 08:57 PM
QUOTE(Jill @ Apr 24 2008, 04:26 PM)
I thought some here might be interested in my latest Search Engine Land article:
Let me know what you think!
Let me know what you think!
Jill - great article!
The frames issue always gets me.
Here's an example -
Trying to start work on a hotel website, I found that IE will open the website, but Firefox gives me this:
Warning: require_once(Structures/DataGrid.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/xxxxx/httpdocs/include/comuni.php on line 6
Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required 'Structures/DataGrid.php' (include_path='.:/usr/local/share/pear') in /usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/xxxxx/httpdocs/include/comuni.php on line 6<HTML>
Here's the source code:
CODE
<HEAD>
<TITLE>XXXXX</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<FRAMESET ROWS="*,0">
<FRAME SRC="urlxxxxx" NORESIZE>
<NOFRAMES>
Your browser does not support frames.
</NOFRAMES>
</FRAMESET>
</HTML>
<TITLE>XXXXX</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<FRAMESET ROWS="*,0">
<FRAME SRC="urlxxxxx" NORESIZE>
<NOFRAMES>
Your browser does not support frames.
</NOFRAMES>
</FRAMESET>
</HTML>
Blecchhhh.
Thanks again.
Tina
Edited by Randy, 25 April 2008 - 05:29 AM.
Added code tags.
#6
Jarret
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Posted 24 April 2008 - 09:51 PM
Not a bad article, easy to understand for those who are just getting in SEO.
As far as your post Tina, you should avoid using frames honestly, not very SEO friendly.
As far as your post Tina, you should avoid using frames honestly, not very SEO friendly.
#7
ScottSalwolke
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Posted 24 April 2008 - 09:55 PM
Nice article Jill. Great resource to diagnose the problems of a site. And a nice way of breaking down potential problems that are revealed by this tool.
#8
Randy
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Posted 25 April 2008 - 05:40 AM
That's not a Frames error message Tina. It's a php error.
It's telling you line 6 of the file located at /include/comuni.php has a require_once function on line 6 that is supposed to be pulling information from another file. This other file is either missing or in a different location. require_once() is often used to grab the database connection info. And when the error pops up it's usually because of bad path information in my experience. If you want to be absolutely sure (and your server isn't going to be changing) you can always use the full path on the server. eg the whole /usr/local/psa path such as given in the error message.
re: The article. Good one Jill. Clear, concise and spot on.
It's telling you line 6 of the file located at /include/comuni.php has a require_once function on line 6 that is supposed to be pulling information from another file. This other file is either missing or in a different location. require_once() is often used to grab the database connection info. And when the error pops up it's usually because of bad path information in my experience. If you want to be absolutely sure (and your server isn't going to be changing) you can always use the full path on the server. eg the whole /usr/local/psa path such as given in the error message.
re: The article. Good one Jill. Clear, concise and spot on.
#9
tina
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Posted 25 April 2008 - 05:56 AM
QUOTE(Jarret @ Apr 24 2008, 10:51 PM)
As far as your post Tina, you should avoid using frames honestly, not very SEO friendly.
Hi, Jarret.
Wasn't me using frames - this is the source code for the home page of a site I am about to work on optimizing.
I would never ever use frrrramesssss. ICK!
But thanks for the suggestion!
Tina
#10
tina
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Posted 25 April 2008 - 06:02 AM
QUOTE(Randy @ Apr 25 2008, 06:40 AM)
That's not a Frames error message Tina. It's a php error.
It's telling you line 6 of the file located at /include/comuni.php has a require_once function on line 6 that is supposed to be pulling information from another file. This other file is either missing or in a different location. require_once() is often used to grab the database connection info. And when the error pops up it's usually because of bad path information in my experience. If you want to be absolutely sure (and your server isn't going to be changing) you can always use the full path on the server. eg the whole /usr/local/psa path such as given in the error message.
re: The article. Good one Jill. Clear, concise and spot on.
It's telling you line 6 of the file located at /include/comuni.php has a require_once function on line 6 that is supposed to be pulling information from another file. This other file is either missing or in a different location. require_once() is often used to grab the database connection info. And when the error pops up it's usually because of bad path information in my experience. If you want to be absolutely sure (and your server isn't going to be changing) you can always use the full path on the server. eg the whole /usr/local/psa path such as given in the error message.
re: The article. Good one Jill. Clear, concise and spot on.
Randy, very appreciative of your explanation.
I am interested that Firefox gives me this response, but IE just opens the website.
Do you know why that is?
Tina
#11
Randy
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Posted 25 April 2008 - 06:26 AM
Hard to say for sure Tina. The error should be there in both since it's something that's happening on the server, prior to the html being delivered to the browser.
If I had to guess, I'd say the error message content is probably there in IE too, but is ending up being hidden under another content layer or otherwise suppressed. If you view the source in IE do you see the error that way?
If I had to guess, I'd say the error message content is probably there in IE too, but is ending up being hidden under another content layer or otherwise suppressed. If you view the source in IE do you see the error that way?
#12
tina
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Posted 25 April 2008 - 06:44 AM
QUOTE(Randy @ Apr 25 2008, 07:26 AM)
Hard to say for sure Tina. The error should be there in both since it's something that's happening on the server, prior to the html being delivered to the browser.
If I had to guess, I'd say the error message content is probably there in IE too, but is ending up being hidden under another content layer or otherwise suppressed. If you view the source in IE do you see the error that way?
If I had to guess, I'd say the error message content is probably there in IE too, but is ending up being hidden under another content layer or otherwise suppressed. If you view the source in IE do you see the error that way?
Randy - I just checked the URL in Firefox and IE again.
Firefox now showing the frames source code (last night it was showing that php code).
Viewing source code in IE now shows a page of html, with flash and js code.
Hmmm
Tina
#13
rolf
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Posted 25 April 2008 - 06:53 AM
Good article Jill. Really easy to understand and very useful as both a primer and a brush up.
I was already confident that google could spider all the text/image alt in the site I tested, but it was good to find an easy way to confirm it using the text cache - I didn't find any problems, but as we all know, understanding what needs to happen doesn't prevent mistakes and oversights!
I look forward to future articles on the same subject.
I was already confident that google could spider all the text/image alt in the site I tested, but it was good to find an easy way to confirm it using the text cache - I didn't find any problems, but as we all know, understanding what needs to happen doesn't prevent mistakes and oversights!
I look forward to future articles on the same subject.
#14
Jill
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Posted 25 April 2008 - 08:10 AM
QUOTE(Tina)
You might also want to consider including title="" attributes for images as well.
Tina, just so you know, the search engine don't index the title attribute. Doesn't mean not to use it, but it won't help for search engine purposes is all.
Thanks for the comments on the article, guys! When I started writing it, I was going to talk about a bunch of different tools we use to diagnose the health of your website, but once I got going on just the google text cache one, I realize that alone was enough for one article! It was even longer than I generally like my articles to be, but I found nothing I could legitimately cut from it.
The funny thing is that one thing -- using Google's text cache -- is just the FIRST thing on our SEO checklist. We have like 15 or so more!
#15
Hyperformance
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Posted 25 April 2008 - 08:17 AM
Once again, great job Jill - I liked your analogy on the health field, it applied nicely.
Now, instead of telling people their website sucks..., we'll just tell them how SICK it is.
(C'mon, laugh with me...
)I enjoyed reading it, and it made perfect sense - I think the layman will take nicely to your presentation.
- S
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