[thelist] search engine strategies

[rudy]

there's a new article on wdvl about search engines --

   http://wdvl.internet.com/Location/Search/Spider/

a particular point (on page 2) caught my eye --

    4. Concentrate on the main text. You might have a separate
    top table (perhaps containing an advert and logo) plus a
    left hand column with links. These will appear in the HTML
    file before your main, central text block. There's a
    temptation to think these areas are more important than
    the main text area because spiders read them first. If
    these outlying areas contain a lot of text (unlinked) then
    this may well be true. But many engines try to ignore
    peripheral HTML blocks, especially if they're heavy on
    links, and head straight for the center. It's not too
    difficult for them to do. They simply look for the largest
    title (within <h> tags) on the page and assume that whatever
    follows that is the most important text area.

i remember using a layout table hack which involved a spacer gif and
rowspans to ensure that the left nav bar came after the main content in the
source code

good to know that this is not necessary, and i assume also applies to css
layout where the main content div is floated and the nav div comes after
that (or other similar source code trickery, er, i mean, sequencing)

"they simply look for the largest title (within <h> tags) on the page" is
very heartening news, assuming it's reliable, which i have no reason to
doubt

rudy