Changing Home Page Text

[aaron2005]

I have a gift basket website, I would like to change the title of the index.html to refect the season "Gift Baskets - Valentines Baskets", do search engines freak out about this? The Christmas title did not have a negative result but I wonder about changing it to match the seasons. Same goes for the text on the index.html, I would like to change that to match the current season.

[kgun]

Is it possible to

1. Make an arry with n elements, where n=number of messages and put the messages in the arry.

2. Make a corresponding array with season time variables (in the rigth positions).

3. Write PHP code (while loop) that pulls the time variables from the last array, compares them to output from the computer clock (inbuild time handling functions ?) and pick the right variable and the message related to that variable.

4. Put the text in the HTML code where you want it.

[aaron2005]

Sure kgun, I can just whip off some code to take care of it! LOL...remember, you are a major geek, I wouldn't even know where to start making that happen. :)

[kgun]

http://www.w3schools.com/

Javascript session. There are some "time manipulation" functions there. I have not read the PHP session.

You can even use a threedimensional array.

ID=number | Season Label | Season Time identifier |

I would like to change the title of the index.html to refect the season

Then I think you should use PHP.

[s_clay]

aaron2005;

If it were my site, I'd leave the title on the home page as brief and broadly on topic, as possible.

Then use some H1 markup (if you go for that) with anchor text linking to your Easter Gift Baskets Page, for example.

[s_clay]

aaron2005;

If it were my site, I'd leave the title on the home page as brief and broadly on topic as possible.

Then use some on page H1 markup (if you go for that) with anchor text linking to your Easter Gift Baskets Page, for example.

[crankydave]

Originally Posted by aaron2005

I have a gift basket website, I would like to change the title of the index.html to refect the season "Gift Baskets - Valentines Baskets", do search engines freak out about this? The Christmas title did not have a negative result but I wonder about changing it to match the seasons. Same goes for the text on the index.html, I would like to change that to match the current season.

My opinion... no. They won't freak out.

Changing graphics, headers, etc can be a good idea. William pointed out in another thread Google does it themselves.

Do keep in mind...

Any changes to the title can affect your rankings for KW's you are currently ranking on especially if they're omitted with your change. Same goes for page text.

Nothing wrong with being seasonal. As a matter of fact, you'd be hard pressed to find a retailer who's not.

The Easter Bunny is my friend! :)

Dave

[kgun]

Oh my head.

Good point crankydave.

A last question!

Shall we change nick? :-)

[dburdon]

Aaron,

keep all the seasons on the home page. Just move them around and apply a different emphasis at different times of year.

Make Valentines prominent in February, Easter prominent in March etc.

[Mel]

The search engines will only react to what they see on the page, but if you change the content you should expect expect the rankings to change too.

Better still why not make up a series of pages each devoted to a major holiday and simply put a paragraph on the homepage linking to that holiday page. You can change the holiday paragraph without changing the focus and rankings of the home page and still get rankings and seasonal traffic.

[cspelts]

Originally Posted by aaron2005

I would like to change the title of the index.html to refect the season "Gift Baskets - Valentines Baskets", do search engines freak out about this?

Guess what? WebProWorld.com is doing exactly what you're proposing on the front page of this site. The title changes every time the top story is changed.

[brian.mark]

Hmmm... maybe we need to change our title to "Power Tools to kill the Easter Bunny"... ok, maybe not. It'd get talked about, though... probably lots of blog posts, and it could be good. Bad publicity doesn't exist, right?

Seriously, though, changing to a theme is exactly what the more successful ones do. www.landsend.com (many claim their site is excellent) changes the theme of the homepage almost weekly. Personally, shopping for clothes online doesn't appeal to me at all, but if I landed on the homepage and it was selling shorts in winter I'd leave.

What you're asking about can be a very powerful tool to make your site more relevant to your visitors and show them you understand what they're looking for right now. Just make sure it's still possible to find a general basket and not just the holiday themed ones.

Oh, and I'd also add that MSN will love you if you do this. Fresh content = higher rankings with them.

Brian.

[kgun]

Personally, shopping for clothes online doesn't appeal to me at all, but if I landed on the homepage and it was selling shorts in winter I'd leave.

Selling shorts and not short in the winter.

Reminds med about William Shakespeare: "My loyalty (to a site) is like the shape of my hat, it changes with the seasons."

So you require,

1. Seaons.
2. Geographical loaction.

Then make a MySQL database with season in the columns and geographical location in the rows.

Pull elements from the database depending on the clients computer clock (applet / javascript) and geolocation.

You get two variables and write a double while and / or for loop.

You may have to combine JavaScript code with PHP code (or C#, java or distributed BETA objects if you get to work for Wal Mart).

But that was not an answer to you question.

PS:

brian.mark:

The exchange rates from the Swiss bank stands static on my front page. The same for the Value Line logo.

Aron2005. What happened to the page rank tool (below the Mamma Health SE) you "stole" from my site? It is no longer valid, so I have to delete it on a lot of pages.

Message: Never "steal" from a Norwegian that has "stolen" elswhere. Since you are in the cut and paste industry, never paste code from ... :-)

[Faglork]

If you want a *simple* solution (and are on apache server), you can do it with SSI, server date variables and some simple HTML files to include depending on date:

timefmt="%U" sets the SSI time format to calendar weeks.

Code may vary according to your server configuration.


faglork

[kgun]

Correct.

No loops needed.

I was a programmer :-)

[nipplecharms1]

Well I completely changed the index on one of my body jewelry sites. Lets see what happens!~

Michael[/url]

[incrediblehelp]

On this topic, what does everyone find the easiest way to change website images (look and feel) for seasons? I am building a real estate website for a relative and I am going to have 3-4 looks to match the seasons. I assume this would be done simply having seperate CSSS style sheets for each season.

[Faglork]

Take the SSI code I posted above and use it for switching the CSS file.

faglork

[incrediblehelp]

Cool I will try it.