| PHP, SSI and Rankings |
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Written by Nancy Cardinali January 26, 2006
Hi Adam & LEDers!
I believe this has been tossed around before, but I'm going to ask again. Does using PHP or SSI for headers, navigation, side bars, footers etc effect SE ranking? My question particularly relates to navigation that is now text.
It has been mentioned 'bots land on home page and use text nav to spider all other pages. Since SSI puts the code on the page, it should not interfere, correct?
Thanking in advance.
Nancy Cardinali
Written by Paul Bedford January 27, 2006
Bots land on a page normally by following a link. They will land on your home page if that is where the link leads them but they could also follow another link and start deeper into your site.
Having said that, using SSI or PHP to include menus, headers, footers etc will have no effect on the ‘bot as all the elements are included by the server prior to being served to the ‘bot. It only receives the complete page. The ‘bot has no way of knowing, nor does it care, whether the page has other items included in it by the server or not. If it can follow the links in the menu it will normally do so.
Regards,
Paul Bedford
Written by Jill Whalen January 27, 2006 > Does using PHP or SSI for headers, navigation,
> side bars, footers etc effect SE ranking?
- Nancy Cardinali
Not at all. The way to check is to simply view the source code via your browser when you're at the site. Most likely you'll see the included HTML code just as if it were not an include. It all happens before it gets to your browser (or to the search engine spider) so it's just like you put it there by hand.
Hope this helps!
Jill Whalen
High RankingsR - Helping Sites to Be the Best They Can Be!
highrankings.com
Written by Bob Gladstein January 30, 2006
> It has been mentioned 'bots land on home page
> and use text nav to spider all other pages. Since
> SSI puts the code on the page, it should not
> interfere, correct?
- Nancy Cardinali
Exactly. Just look at the source code of a page that's put together using SSI. There's no indication that that's how the page was built, because the server puts it all together rather than the browser. What you see in the source is what a spider will see, so SSI has absolutely no effect on search engines. It's just a convenient way to keep a site's content consistent.
The only exception to this would be the case of Front Page includes, and even in that case I don't believe it effects the way a search engine judges the content. It's just that the comment code for the include is in the source, so it's not a completely invisible process, but since spiders ignore comments, it doesn't matter.
Bob Gladstein
Written by Jere Matlock January 30, 2006
No. PHP or SSI, when parsed and rendered as HTML by the server looks exactly the same to robots (including googlebot) and browsers, as does straight HTML. The HTML is all they see.
As the old saw goes, "the proof is in the pudding". I can refer you to many sites I've built using combinations of PHP and SSI, that are doing very well in the search engines for their main key words. Server Side Includes make it way easier to make changes to site-wide page elements like nav bars and copyright notices. PHP pages routinely make it to the top of the search engines.
For the curious, here's a little more info on how to get SSI working on your site: http://www.wordsinarow.com/tabletrick.html#virtual
Jeré Matlock
wordsinarow.com
Website Design & Marketing | SEO
Written by Will Bontrager February 1, 2006 This response is lagging, I realize, as the OP has been answered.
For those who might have additional related questions about what SE spiders see and don't see, our "What Search Engine Spiders See" tool at http://willmaster.com/sbot (redirect) provides certainty. Plus, it can generate word counts and lists and keyword density.
It's bookmark-able and recommend-able.
Will Bontrager
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