Does a menu matter in the SERPs

[ep2012]

Hi,

Someone told me yesterday that if your index page doesn't have a nav, that it is docked points. While my site has over 230 pages, the index page has no nav.

I was going to wait to redesign it, but maybe I need to step that up.


Michelle

[HTMLBasicTutor]

If you have no navigation, how do users (never mind search bots) find the interior pages of your site?

[ep2012]

I guess when they are searching for the kws, those pages show up, plus I promote them to my lists.

It's a sales letter, there are never any navs in a sales letter b/c you don't want the surfer to lose focus by going to all these other things. A site should concentrate on just one product (unless it's a retail site of course, then that's different.).


Michelle

[HTMLBasicTutor]

It's a sales letter, there are never any navs in a sales letter b/c you don't want the surfer to lose focus by going to all these other things. A site should concentrate on just one product (unless it's a retail site of course, then that's different.).

You didn't say that in your opening post.

Did the person who said the bit about the navigation know that?

From a visitor point of view, I would want to see navigation on how to contact you, refund and payment policies and disclosure of potential income possibilites (if that's the type of sales page it is). Would make it seem a bit more trustworthy.

[dgswilson]

You could always make a html site map page and link to it. Place it where you want "if" you want people navigating.

[mjtaylor]

You could always make a html site map page and link to it. Place it where you want "if" you want people navigating.

I like that idea.

I don't see a lot of "sales letters" in the SERPs, do you? I think sales letters usually depend on their traffic from other forms of marketing.

[dgswilson]

depend on their traffic from other forms of marketing

Don't know sales/marketing. There must be titles and text on pages so I guess if you typed in the right words you'd get something.

[C0ldf1re]

... Someone told me yesterday that if your index page doesn't have a nav, that it is docked points...

Hmmm... Gossip and rumour and speculation abound in SEO circles. Don't take that advice as gospel. However, if users cannot navigate around your site, then a search engine bot is likely to have the same problem.

You could always make a html site map page and link to it...

You would have to do it manually, and it would be a chore to keep it updated. (Automatic sitemap generators just follow the navigation, which, in this case, does not exist.)

[ep2012]

You didn't say that in your opening post.

Did the person who said the bit about the navigation know that?

From a visitor point of view, I would want to see navigation on how to contact you, refund and payment policies and disclosure of potential income possibilites (if that's the type of sales page it is). Would make it seem a bit more trustworthy.

Well no one asked me why I had a sales letter page so that's why I didn't mention it. I thought it was common knowledge

I have a footer with the contact, privacy & T&C, plus a few other URLs like the blog, etc.


Michelle

---------- Post added at 07:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:19 AM ----------

Ok, just to understand something as I'm not an SEO expert. I need the sitemap for webmaster tools, correct? And then I need the sitemap that surfers see, right?

No I wouldn't be able to update that html thingy. Some of the pages aren't for public use like thank you pages & the rest I plug to my list, but I never know that not having a nav would affect my SERPs. I guess b/c up until April, I was always in first & third place.


Michelle

[weegillis]

You don't need the sitemap for webmaster tools. That's just hype. The XML sitemap is a quasi standard quite apart from Google, and most SE's in the top quadrant look for it on websites they crawl, just as they would a robots.txt file. There is actually a way to guide all SE bots to that file from within your robots.txt file. You don't NEED WMT or any other to benefit from using these site maps. Just because you don't verify a site does not mean your site map will not be downloaded by Google or any others. You just won't be able to see it happening. That's all. They got it, if it was there. Be sure of that.

The tools dashboards are really a service, and like all services, subject to change at any time without notice. Use of a SE dashboard might help your SEO efforts, but a professional probably doesn't give WMT or the others a parting glance. They have their own tools to answer their questions; accurately, I might add, would be my conclusion.

---------- Post added at 01:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:31 AM ----------

Guess I better add, UNLESS you are in the process of verifying your site and want to point them to your sitemap.xml file. That's different. Until WMT admits that they have your sitemap, there is little or no way of telling what URL's they have crawled short of your access logs. If they admit to having the sitemap.xml file, they will/might at least tell you how many of the URL's they placed in their index. They still won't tell you which ones.

The only real reason to use any of the Google services is to tell if other Google services are working right. There are umpteen other ways to be accountable to one's advertisers if this is a concern, which it would be, and there are in-house methods available to track abuse of paid clicks. I really think everyone is just GIVING Google everything they want, which completely sucks, in my view. Their attitude is simply that if we'll bend over, they'll stand behind us. That's what I think of Google. Ergo, my take on WMT, or any others of its ilk, regardless the purveyors.