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View Full Version : Search engines not indexing information between FORM tags


sebastian
04-07-2006, 12:55 PM
A client is currently involved in a redesign and there are two SEOs involved in the project. Myself and another legacy individual from a recent merger.

During the presentation of the new design, we noticed that after the original <BODY> tag there was a <FORM> tag designed to "runat=server". After lots of additional code, the </FORM> tag completes the page before </BODY></HTML> ...in o ther words, all the code is wrapped in this form tag due to the functionality of ASP 2.0 (ASP.NET)

The other SEO spoke up that this was a problem and that search engines will not index anything within form tags due to the old school method of keyword loading in form attributes; BUT, I can't find any information substantiating this. This SEO is a huge Bruce Clay follower, took the guy's class and certification and pretty much thinks of the guy as SEO god. His take is that Bruce Clay says this is the case and he's sticking to it.

Personally, I could care less who said what - for me, it's business - does anyone know if this is true? I cannot find any resource that states that search engines will not index information between form tags nor does it make logical sense to me.

If anyone has heard this, or better yet can point me to a source, I think we'd all be most grateful.

If this is true - it certainly isn't very well known.

evilgreenmonkey
04-10-2006, 11:20 AM
Hi sebastian,

I think that your SEO guy is getting mixed up between the form and the content. A search engine will ignore the <form> destination, <input> etc fields although will not ignore content within a form. This would be counter-active, as many sites do still start and end <form> next to the <body> tag, no matter how small the form is. Search Engines crave useful information, so as long as you're not trying to cheat them, they will do all they can to index it.

In essence, if the user can see and read the content when visiting the page, it will be indexed. Values within a <textarea> variable may not be indexed however and <input> tags are usually just bypassed.

I work with an international bank who do this, and it hasn't effected their SEO strategy in the slightest.

:cool:

sebastian
04-10-2006, 04:48 PM
Makes sense.

I can't imagine that being true (SEs not indexing content between FORM tags) ...especially since there is no viable resource stating such.

...but, I had to ask. Nothing worse than just assuming.