SE friendly DHTML

[rockcoastmedia]

I know that many search spiders have trouble following drop down menues that are created using DHTML. Can someone provide me with a good set of rules for coding a DHTML file that is SE friendly, or even point to a site where I can just view the source code?

[Marcia]

I really can't help on this because I'm not familiar with coding DHTML, but I do know that there is a free script out there somewhere (can't remember where I found it) that's a JS drop-down menu, but provides a CGI alternative for user agents that don't support Javascript.

[Chris_D]

Hi rockcoastmedia

Try 'Suckerfish', and 'Sons of Suckerfish'. They should give you the result that you want.

There are code examples for both horizontal and vertical menu menu versions, with multiple levels of flyouts. Validates, spiderable, and standards based.

http://www.htmldog.com/articles/suckerfish/

Enjoy!

[rockcoastmedia]

thanks for the site, I will check it out.

[rockcoastmedia]

Does anyone know if the drop downs created when using Macromedia products such as Fireworks will be spiderable? I am just not sure what makes a drop down spiderable and what does not.

[rogerd]

Rockcoastmedia, there are a couple of ways to check spiderability. One simple one is to turn off Javascript and see if you can navigate the site. If not, not only will you have spiderablity problems but you'll have problems with the small but significant fraction of users who don't have javascript enabled.

My preferred method is to simulate a relatively dumb spider with a program like Xenu - if you can't find a lot of your content on the final report, neither will most search engines.

I'd be cautious of code generated by a WYSIWIG program. I haven't checked this feature in Dreamweaver, but auto-produced code tends to be rather bloated.

[Nacho]

Suckerfish dropdowns look neat but until IE supports CSS3 or Hover they're not too useful is what I hear.

[Marcia]

I remembered the name of one of their other scripts and found the site that has the script that uses JS menus with the CGI/Perl alternative for when JS isn't enabled.

http://www.interactivetools.com/free...s/jumpbox.html

[Kate]

You can also put up a sitemap that lets spiders crawl all your pages, even without the js. It isn't the most friendly way for humans without javascript to visit your site, but at least that way you're sure spiders can get down to all the pages.

[NuevoJefe]

I would attempt a CSS/javascript styled menu instead; one that's crawlable.

[fthead9]

Try CSS dropdown menus. The links are fully indexible and you have a lot of options for look and feel. This is a good article on it, http://www.alistapart.com/articles/horizdropdowns/
You can see an example on a site we finished recently here www.crnhome.com.

[Phil Mac]

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamici...rome/index.htm

This should resolve your problems a full CSS dropdown menu pretty easy to install and if you know much about css very easy to customise. It's cross browser compatible and from the looks of the code its W3C compliant althougt i've not tested it.

If you lack the HTML or CSS skills to convert this to your site Contact Me maybe I can help you out.

[fmj]

Originally Posted by Nacho

Suckerfish dropdowns look neat but until IE supports CSS3 or Hover they're not too useful is what I hear.

user a : IE with JS
user b: IE without JS

I think that Suckerfish menus are perfectly usable to user a, plus SEO-friendly (nothing more than an unordered list).

Suckerfish menus use DHTML to recreate pseudo-elements via classes in IE, thus bypassing CSS3 requirements:
e.g.
CSS3-compliant: li:hover
IE: li.hover

If you code them well, then they are perfectly usable to user b as well. Use DHTML to hide and expand the menus, rather than simply expand them. That way both user a and user b can use them. In the example with the two users, user a could view a more compact menu than user b, but with the same amount of menu items available.

[cellconversion]

Try scavenging thru the alistapart.com site and you'll find some of the variations for the SUCKER FISH example. I tried using it in one of my projects and it worked ok, though you would need some "hack" to make it work properly for IE.


But generally you can start from there and you can tweak some elements of the script.

[Mel]

If you want a tool that will create elegant CSS dropdown menus in just about any style you choose and that does not use the hidden divs that so many of these do, you can look at the commercial package called Pop Menu Magic I from projectseven.com.

It only works with Dreamweaver and costs something like $90 but if thats the way you work it may just solve all your menu problems from now on.

FYI this uses CSS to style lists into menus and does not use the hidden divs that Google seems to object to.