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Topic: Updating and Search Engines (Read 2937 times)
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Gadget
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Gadget by Pels
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Hi
I am updating my website fairly regularly at the moment but haven't changed my initial metatag that says that the site was created August 2006 and was wondering if there is anyway of indicating my updates to search engine crawlers, etc. without changing this.
I don't really want to slap a 'site updated' sign on my home page, although if this is the only way, I'll do it.
Any ideas please.
Gadget
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kerryb
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Gadget
I have been told (and I am sure one of the techies will correct me if I am wrong!) that the big search engines such as Google are able to tell if you have updated your site even by changing a full stop so changing the date does not matter to them.
I don't know how they do it but they have some form of software that can detect changes I guess.
Kerry
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Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.ukSearching for my family - Baldwin - Sussex, Middlesex, Cork, Pilbeam - Sussex, Harmer - Sussex, Terry - Surrey, Kent, Rhoades - Lincs, Roffey - Surrey, Traies - Devon & Middlesex & many many more to be found on my website .... www.kerrysfamilyhistory.co.uk |
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Gadget
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Gadget by Pels
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Thanks you two 
There are two separate issues as I see it:
One is telling the world, which Meles answered. I do have a Stop Press section which I can use for this.
The other is telling the crawlers, which Kerry has pointed to. This is really what I'm interested in.
Perhaps the techies out there might have some pointers - please and thank you
Gadget
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Gadget
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Gadget by Pels
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Thanks for the link Falkyrn. I did visit it when I registered my site but a revisit is always worthwhile.
Interesting to see that they say that the user should be the one that we should bear in mind when designing websites. Sometimes I think that this is forgotten amidst all the gizzmos
Have just updated - yet again - with a link to my updates on my Stop Press page. I wanted the home page to look calm yet inviting.
Still not sure how the web crawlers work though 
Not complaining have had 950+ hits since 14 August (19 were me before I installed blocking cookies on each browser).
Thanks as always for your help
Gadget
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« Last Edit: Sunday 17 September 06 23:46 BST (UK) by Gadget »
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Gadget
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Gadget by Pels
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Agree. All those flashing lights and stuff are appropriate for certain sites but.............
Not sure about the tight code - as you know I use NOF 9 (which I'm still happy with ) - but I do try to keep to W3C guidelines if poss.
Gadget
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« Last Edit: Monday 18 September 06 15:20 BST (UK) by Gadget »
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Comosus
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It's all too easy to get distracted by the bells and whistles of technology but I always try to remember "Just because you can do something doesn't mean you have to"
I remember my first website - It had everything on there, including the kitchen sink. At the moment I'm redoing my site in xhtml, css and php and then when I'm done with that I'll add it to google. The advantage of the xhtml is that browsers find it easier to read and it's only slightly different from html. CSS makes it far easier to edit the design. PHP has really cut down on the pages. Instead of around 60 or 70 html pages of about 4-5kb each (for each photo page), I now have 4 php pages of about 10kb each (one for each grandparent's surname). I've also added PhpGedView and made a theme for it (which I then designed the rest of the site off).
My site is xhtml valid but the Rootschat banner at the bottom isn't. It also causes problems when using kstableau as that uses a stylesheet to give certain properties to each table and paragraph. I did fix it manually though by editing the html but it's a bit of a drag.
My site is organised into 4 sections - each surname of my grandparent. Each of these will have an information section and a photo album section and the home page will serve as an updates page for the whole thing. I'm also in the process of adding captions to the "main" photos - those with many family members on. I may decide to do this to all of them.
Oh and I decided to cater for 800x600ers. The downside being I had to shrink the photos but nevermind.
Oh also, if you're using Firefox there's a nifty little HTML Validation extension (called "HTML Validator", would you believe it: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/249/ ). It says if there are any errors and will actually correct them for you. Bear in mind however that if you are validating your actual website, it will have bits like the banner added onto it so it's probably best if you try and validate it before you put it online.
My worst enemy on the road has been Internet Explorer as there's a lot of css that it doesn't understand.
I think I've waffled too much as usual anyway so I'll give some handy links for those who want to have a look at css/xhtml and php
CSS: http://www.w3schools.com/css/
XHTML: There are really only tiny differences, most/all of which are found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xhtml#Common_errors
PHP: http://www.freewebmasterhelp.com/tutorials/php - I found this really helpful
The new look bit of my site is being tested here
Andrew
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Leeds - HOLMES (also at Boston Spa, Thorp Arch), SCHOLEY/SCOREY/SCHORAH (also at Stanley, Wakefield), TURVEY (also at Birmingham), WARD, WHITE, WOODHEAD (also at Halton, Whitkirk, Templenewsam). Dewbury - CRAWSHAW, GLEDHILL, SPEIGHT Great Horton - RAMSDEN, SHACKLETON, WOOLER Woolsthorpe by Belvoir - SMITH Barrowby and South Stoke, Lincolnshire - PARKER Derby and Newhall - STREET Census information Crown Copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |
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kerryb
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I'm glad someone has mentioned Firefox, thank you Andrew.
There seems to be an awful lot of web designers out there denying the fact that more than 2 people use Firefox and hence their websites cannot be read by Firefox browsers. 
A bit of an irritation to me!!!!
Kerry
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Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.ukSearching for my family - Baldwin - Sussex, Middlesex, Cork, Pilbeam - Sussex, Harmer - Sussex, Terry - Surrey, Kent, Rhoades - Lincs, Roffey - Surrey, Traies - Devon & Middlesex & many many more to be found on my website .... www.kerrysfamilyhistory.co.uk |
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Gadget
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Gadget by Pels
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......and that many of us do use CSS.
Gadget - A dedicated FF user 
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Berlin-Bob
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re CSS, Just a reminder (yes, I know I'm boring but it is necessary !!)
Whatever your usual "working" browser is, please install as many others as possible and test your website on those too.
I am also a dedicated FF user, but I also have IE and Opera browsers installed
I spent most of the weekend drawing up a family tree in HTML (more about that later, on another topic) and tested it continually in FF and IE, only to discover at the last minute, that that one of the boxes wasn't being drawn properly in Opera.
Even if you curse and swear at IE (and many people do  ) test your website in IE too, it's still the most used browser and the whole point of having a website is so that your "customers" can see it, in all it's glory !!
Bob
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Searching for Coleman, Moore, Kallnung in London; Margulies, Remenyi in E. Europe; Ancestors of Hessie Stevenson-Coleman-Baxter (Ireland, 1861) and, of course, any other ancestors for my web-site http://boco.rootschat.net All Census Data included in this post is Crown Copyright (see: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) |
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Berlin-Bob
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Andrew,
I fully agree with you about xhtml and CSS and PHP.
I am shilley-shalleying about changing over, as
- I have so many search-engine links to HTML pages and I don't want them to be reported as broken, so I have to think of a strategy for that and,
- I am still maintaining my CD version for family members, and most of them won't have PHP on their computers
I so much want to do it, but . . .
Bob
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Searching for Coleman, Moore, Kallnung in London; Margulies, Remenyi in E. Europe; Ancestors of Hessie Stevenson-Coleman-Baxter (Ireland, 1861) and, of course, any other ancestors for my web-site http://boco.rootschat.net All Census Data included in this post is Crown Copyright (see: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) |
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Gadget
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Gadget by Pels
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Hi Bob
Re browsers - I think I have every one that's available so that I can test and for added extra pizzazz, I get a friend to look at it on his Apple (Safari) when it's up 
Overkill or sensible
Gadget
PS. Now if you used NOF 9 you could have CSS, no bother 
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Comosus
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I'm glad someone has mentioned Firefox, thank you Andrew. There seems to be an awful lot of web designers out there denying the fact that more than 2 people use Firefox and hence their websites cannot be read by Firefox browsers. A bit of an irritation to me!!!! Kerry
For the record I also use Firefox but also have Opera installed. My site will be mainly for family members, who will probably be using IE so it's no good if it doesn't display right in IE.
Andrew
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Leeds - HOLMES (also at Boston Spa, Thorp Arch), SCHOLEY/SCOREY/SCHORAH (also at Stanley, Wakefield), TURVEY (also at Birmingham), WARD, WHITE, WOODHEAD (also at Halton, Whitkirk, Templenewsam). Dewbury - CRAWSHAW, GLEDHILL, SPEIGHT Great Horton - RAMSDEN, SHACKLETON, WOOLER Woolsthorpe by Belvoir - SMITH Barrowby and South Stoke, Lincolnshire - PARKER Derby and Newhall - STREET Census information Crown Copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk |
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