How to Optimize a Web Site Using JavaScript Menu

Tip One: Do Not Depent on the JavaScript Menu Alone

How then, if it is using a JavaScript menu, has this page managed to adorn itself with multiple links to the major sections of the site? The BBFA website incorporates breadcrumb links and bottom navigation links so that even if the search engine spiders are unable to follow the links built into the JavaScript code, the crawlers would be able to navigate throughout the rest of the site following the secondary navigation.

So, in order to enable the web crawler to follow the links to the rest of your site, make sure there are regular HTML links throughout the body of your page in addition to implementing bottom (or footer), side/top navigation, as well as breadcrumb navigation.

By the way, an added benefit of having breadcrumb navigation is the increased usability of immediately indicating where you are located and how to find your way home (to the home page), regardless of which web page you end up landing on from the search engine results pages.

In addition to implementing the breadcrumb and bottom navigations on the BBFA website, adding alternative set of links in the <noscript> pair of tag would enable the search engine crawler to get to the links at the top of the page!

If your page did not contain any links interspersed throughout the content, or in the breadcrumb and bottom navigations, without the help of the <noscript> tag, your web pages would be unreachable to the web crawlers, and any other browser and user-agent with disabled JavaScript.

Thus, adding a list of the main navigation links in plain HTML between the <noscript></noscript> tags can be a handy way of assisting the web crawler in accessing the most important pages of the site.

Since web crawlers behave like old web browsers (pre JavaScript, pre frames), the <noscript> tag enables you to put additional information which would be hidden from the new, JavaScript-enabled browsers, but would be seen by the browsers who are unable to understand JavaScript, or who simply have their JavaScript turned off.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that the moment you put irrelevant information in the <noscript> tag, you might cross the line of search engine spamming. Search engines, like all of us, dislike spamming and in their determination to show relevant search results, they would in no time remove a keyword spamming website from their indexes. So, before you do anything for improving your web site ranking, ask yourself – would you do that if the search engines did not exist, and would it benefit the readers in addition to the search engines.

Having a sitemap can be another good way of providing access to the most important links of the website so that a web crawler can follow them and index the whole site.

The more pages the web crawler can follow, the more pages it will be able to index, the more interlinked the website will appear. Having a number of properly interlinked web pages within a website would indicate to the search engine that the information architecture of the site is solid and this would help you achieve higher search engine rankings.

Now that we have made sure the site could be indexed, let us look at what would cause it to rank high on the search engine results.

Andy has selected a set of keyword phrases, which are not only popular but also effective. You would want to select not a single but two-three keyword phrases. Properly selected keyword phrases will increase the chances of your site being found and will bring more targeted audience.

A wonderful web service, which can be used to select effective keywords is WordTracker. Alternatively, use the Term Suggestion Tool provided by the paid search engine Overture for their key term analysis.

The BBFA page has its chosen key phrase in most of the critical places:

1. at the page title tag;
2. throughout the content;
3. at the text of web link pointing to relevant web pages;

It does not have a description meta tag but it should! The description meta tag is often used by search engines to list a brief description of the site. Thus a good description meta tag not only would improve the usability of the search engine results, but would educate the person making the search if that page is the one sought before the actual visit to the site.

While different search engines have different algorithms for ranking web pages, one of the general rules is the importance of frequent appearance of the key phrases throughout the content of the page. Of course, simply stacking keywords could backfire unless their presence is purposeful and aims to inform the readers. Again, follow the rule: “whatever is good for the reader should be good for the search engine”.

The BBFA key phrase of choice “spiritual principles” appears 4 times throughout the content of the home page. Different keyword combinations including “business” appear multiple times as well. With such keyword density, no wonder the page shows high on the search engine result pages.

To see a full report on the keyword density of your web page, go to the Keyword Density Analyser Tool.

Using keyword density analysis tool will help you see your pages through the eyes of a web spider. It will help you understand if indeed the keyword phrases of your choice appear throughout the page title, meta tags, and page content consistently and often enough to convince the search engines that this page is relevant, has substantial content, and is worth high ranking.

In summary, what this article has covered are some of the best practices for web site optimization and search engine marketing as applied to websites using JavaScript-based menu:

1. Do not depend on the DHTML menu alone for navigation – provide additional links throughout the body of the page, through breadcrumb and bottom navigation;

2. Build a list of links to the most important sections of your site in the <noscript> tags which both the archaic browsers and the search engine crawlers will be able to see and follow;

3. Build an informative sitemap to enable access to the most important sections of the site; in addition, provide links to these sections from the footer of every page;

4. Select several two-three word keyword phrases and place them within the page title, the meta tags, and most importantly, throughout the body of the page;

5. Whatever you do, do it to make the page readable and usable for the people who will find your website via a search engine – do not do it just for the search engine positioning. After all, if you are number one on Google but nobody stays at your website to read or purchase from it, your search engine optimization has been a waste of time and energy;

6. Be patient – the search engines take their time to crawl and index the newly discovered pages. Do not expect improved results within the first 3-4 weeks; sometimes this can take several months.

If after several months your web site's position on the search engines result pages has not improved, you might want to consider the services of a professional web site optimization and search engine placement expert.

This article did not cover the equally important subjects of search engine submission and building links to your site, both of which would help your web site attain high search engine rankings. If you want to learn more on these subjects and on how to achieve top rankings with the search engines, you can visit WebSage.