Google and Dreamweaver Templates

[rumpus]

Hi all, my first post here so be gentle

I have noticed that any sites I build based on Dreamweaver templates are much harder to get indexed. Has anyone had this problem? One site in particular has a sitemap submitted to google that includes 24 pages but only 7 have been indexed. I have optimized every page on the site and I normally get reasonable results from this but with the dreamweaver templates system it seems much more difficult to get all my pages listed.

Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

Thanks

[JohnW]

rumpus, welcome to SEW. Most likely if you have an indexing problem it is related to site navigation and/or not enough inbound linking. Give an example if you like, no doubt someone here will give you the answer.

[Discovery]

Rumpus, John is correct your issue is not Dreamweaver code. If it were millions of DW developers would have been complaining about this issue. We have developed with DW for nearly 7 years and have never had an issue.

I dont believe DW actually sells templates, so if you simply mean that you are using generic templates from places like template monster that are DW compliant your issue could be simply one of competition. If you purchase templates that have terrible code, and I have seen many, then your issue code be a improperly coded javascript nightmare. Run DW browser and error check tools on your sites.

Also double check any hidden comments, alt tags and other meta data in the code that may be included in your template purchase. Many of these templates are created in Germany/Austria or other non english speaking counties and have descriptions/alt tags/ image names and so on in their native tongue. You may want to replace these names if you have an english speaking target market.

Good luck - Discovery

[copywriter39]

If anything I thought Dreamweaver offered advantages. It has a lot less html code then sites created in FrontPage. I agree the problem could be with the template company your purchasing from. And does the site use flash for navigation?

[BuckfastMonk]

or javascript

[rumpus]

Hi there, sorry for the delayed response I've been swamped. The templates are designed by me in Dreamweaver not purchased from a third party. I normally build in Dreamweaver it just seems to be the sites that use a template that index differently to those that don't. I agree that it could be an inbound link problem so I'm going to do a bit more work on this. I'll let you know how I get on.

I'm also going to do some more research on javascript and indexing.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

[EVERTON]

Hi everyone,

Can someone please tell me if it is possible to create a CMS using dreamweaver mx. I am fairly new to Dremweaver and I have been asked to develop a site that people can easily update, and thought it best to create a CMS.

Anyone please advise? Be most grateful.

Everton

[BuckfastMonk]

dreamweaver mx is a development platform. It is not a cms creator unless you are familiar with php and can code a cms yourself

[newreality]

Rumpus,

I use Dreamwever templates and noticed that MX can alter certain code when resaving. Check the head sections upward, especially with xhtml.

[Northie]

indexing - make sure that when you view the source of your pages that the links are natural <a href='#'>....</a> type links and not javascript drop downs etc.

Additionally - if you're using a premade template from dreamweaver then remember 1000s of other pages contain very similar code to your own as well. If you don't pad the template out enough with your own unique content then you'll trip some duplicate content filter and may get put in the supplementals.

Also make sure your template is fairly code-lean to avoid this problem within the scope of your own site

[Northie]

Originally Posted by EVERTON

Hi everyone,

Can someone please tell me if it is possible to create a CMS using dreamweaver mx. I am fairly new to Dremweaver and I have been asked to develop a site that people can easily update, and thought it best to create a CMS.

Anyone please advise? Be most grateful.

Everton

make a CMS with dreamweaver - difficult. A CMS is an application in it's self, dreamweaver is just the page designer.

try getting an off the shelf CMS like joomla (free open source) - you can then redesign the template yourself in deamweaver

[SEOMalc]

I have had a few problems with Dreamweaver Template based sites in the past where Dreamweaver adds random </head> tags or completely destroys the relative linking to images and other pages.

I usually clean and fix all these problems before launch or at least before any online marketing activity. I would recommend checking your code for any stealthy mistakes.

Other than that it could just be coincidence rather than anything to do with DW templates. I completely agree with JohnW that internal nav or link juice (or both) are a more likely culprit.

SEOMalc.

[newreality]

Also, there were many more problems prior to MX 2004 edition, but I'm not sure which you are using.

Are you calling your content dynamically from an includes file?