Re: Front Page and SEO


"All Patriots" <NoSpam@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:fuSOe.7756$KX7.4416@xxxxxxxxxxx
>
> "davidof" <david.george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:430af7d6$0$21297$7a628cd7@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> All Patriots wrote:
>>> I use Front Page 2003 and I would like to understand how best to create
>>> the website for SEO. I use Front Page because I don't know HTML or any
>>> web programming language and it's easy to use.
>>
>> I do know HTML but still use FrontPage for some work. There is nothing
>> particuarly wrong with later versions of FrontPage. I use a style ***
>> which keeps a lot of cruft down and also run a Perl script for post
>> processing to remove any FP elements inserted into the pages.
>>
>> FP is good for managing a medium size website and can be fairly SEO
>> friendly if you stick to text menus. These can be made to look pretty
>> snazzy with style sheets. If you use a theme then graphics are used for
>> the menus, although ALT text is specified these may not be such a
>> powerful indicator to Google or other search engines about the meaning of
>> the page and I would assume they are less SEO friendly... they are
>> certainly less Internet friendly.
>
> In the 2003 version I believe the themes are now CSS but the (navigation)
> menus are still made of graphics. I'll take a look at the code to see if
> FrontPage generates ALT text for the menus.
>
>>
>> FrontPage doesn't seem to produce any standards compliant HTML - although
>> the 2003 edition may be better for that.
>
> The buzz of the 2003 release was all about producing better code and it
> was targeted for business. It might not be worth an upgrade but you might
> want to take a look at the reviews.
>
> Thanks for the help.
>
>>
I use the 2002 version of MS Frontpage and find it quite acceptable and I
see no reason to upgrade. It inserts a few meta lines on its own
intitiative but otherwise seems fine for me. I don't use any themes or
fancy templates. I just start with a completely blank page and type in all
my information and spend about 20% of my time editing in the html text mode
for any hidden bits required, such as javascript. You can use styles to
shorten the pages. I find it essential however to understand everything
that goes on in the html code and I agree that the output code does not
necessarily validate. It is possible to produce bloated code with MS
Frontpage (and probably with other editors also) but I suspect that is more
due to users thinking that fancy themes and templates are a good idea
coupled with having little or no understanding about what they are creating
in the html code and its implications.
Best regards, Eric.


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