SECTION V. Web Publications Conventions

Q. Usability by search engines

STANDARDS:

1. To insure that no gaps exist in the search of your site, set up invisible links to anything that is referenced from image maps, JavaScript, or Flash links.

For example: <a href=“http://www.rfcity.org”></a> or <a href=“.../programs.html”></a>.

Since nothing on this type of link is clickable, it is invisible to the user but readable to a search spider. This type of link can be embedded on any HTML page. Notice there is no clickable text between the tags.

Explanation:
Search spiders and robots index a site by following links from a starting page (on the public access server this will be the UWRF home page) to all of the linked subordinate pages. However, spiders and robots cannot read image map, JavaScript, or Flash links. Without invisible links, a lot of subordinate pages may not be indexed by the search engine, and the users may not find what they need.

Reference and Information:
W3C Cascading Style Sheets

2. UWRF sites should use meta tags to specify a “description” and “keywords” by which search engines will index the page.

Reference and Information:
How to Use Meta Tags
Meta Tag Keywords and Metatag Description

3. One reason that UWRF departments/offices should avoid using frames on their Web pages is that the major search engines often do not properly index sites using frames.

Web Site Development Policy (Full Version)

SECTION V. Web Publications Conventions

Q. Usability by search engines

STANDARDS:

Web Site Development Policy
(Full Version)