Microsoft Office Live Small Business Community

I believe that links to other sites are advantageous for getting picked up by search engines and this can apply to links in and links out to third party sites. I have a number of links out such as "link here to visit Google Maps". Would it be better to have "Visit Google Maps" or "To visit Google Maps click here www.googlemaps.com "?

Ian @ Focused Financial Planning

Hello Ian:

I have also found with office live text based links carry the most weight. I use a text description linked to a url "Google Maps" in this manner I create more keywords that really stand out for the search engine spiders. I have found a link like this Silver Moon Furniture
 has allot more weight thank a link like this   using office live.

Gary

New Mountain Tavern                               Silver Moon Furniture

Hi Scybyte

Many thanks yet again. I am slowly getting the hang of this though your help.

Ian @ Focused Financial Planning

Those ugly blue/purple text links in office live still carry the most weight

Gary

New Mountain Tavern                               Silver Moon Furniture

It is true the text one create keywords. Couldn't you add Alt="text here" to the html module that contains the link & image? It would look like <link, img, alt>. Would that have the same effect for search engines while producing better effect for the visual consumer? If that is the case you could pack a bunch of keywords to attract the search engine even more than the ugly text link and also have the image for the apperance.

Hello colatax:

Html modules add html elements to office live webpages by using Iframes and about the only thing that a search engine spyder will see is "Please enable java script to view this page properly" that is the reason a simple text link has the weight it does using office live with the online editor. The reason I prefer the online editor to using third party tools and uploading my complete pages is that the online editor writes in xhtml and the pages are dynamic (modify date automatically updates to current date whenever the page is accessed by spyders) where using your own html editor and uploading your page the page is static and modify date stays the same. This is one of the biggest advantages that office live offers anyway if I am going to upload my own site it would be on a unix/apache server that supports php, mysql, etc. The templates in office live may be limited and the pages look a little plain bt as far as the search engines are concerned "Office Live Rocks!" and I have not found anything that can compete against office live using the WYSIWYG editor as far as search engine position and ranking.

Gary
New Mountain Tavern		Silver Moon Furniture

You're right I remember seeing "please enable javascript" text. Thanks for clarifying.

Don't get me wrong html modules are ok to use I just try to put more than one component into them to keep the number down and try to keep them out of the top part of my pages and everything seems ok (Keep the *Stuff* simple) is the best thing to remember to build a powerful office live website.

Gary
New Mountain Tavern		Silver Moon Furniture

Good point, and for that reason, anything you want the spiders to "see" you should keep out of the HTML module, hyperlinks, pictures, text, ect!!