Are navi button best as text, for google to read?

[Burnley84]

I heard that google can't read navi buttons unless there text. is this true?

is it better to have them as text?

and is there a way to have it still look really nice but as text i.e. drop down menu, mouse over colour change etc?

Thanks,

Anthony

[gwpriester]

I might be wrong, but I should think Google is more interested in your page/site content.

To this point, make sure your page titles are more descriptive, and that you have good page descriptions and appropriate keywords, though there is some question about the effectiveness of keywords.

You can set up a simple yet elegant text menu. For example HOME | ABOUT US | OUR SERVICES | CONTACT US

The customize your mouse off and mouse over colors to make the mouse over very distinct.

[Garrett]

If using Xara Web Designer 7, see page 204 of the User Guide (Text inside groups). Except that the recommended solution doesn't seem to work ... at least not for me. The "names" function doesn't apply the "HTMLTEXT" label on my NAv Bar buttons. Neither does the "Image Properties" Alt text assignment of a text label seem to be working when applied to a NavBar button.

Does anyone have a solution?

[Burnley84]

i know content is more important than anything and I've got a fair bit of learning to do with website seo but do you know when you see in google various links underneath a website

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourc...l559l0.1.2l3l0

do google look at text links for this or is it something else?

[Drwyd]

They are called Sitelinks (Google looks at all links)

[Burnley84]

That's the word I was looking for. Can they see links even if there not text?

[gwpriester]

You can add alt text to the link which identifies the nav button. The downside is if the visitor's cursor hovers over the button a tool tip appears which can appear redundant at best. Double click on the nav bar to open the Navigation Bar Properties menu. Add your button text in the Tool Tip column. It will appear in the HTML script as Alt text, and as such be searchable.

I have a tooltip for the Xara Xone tutorial navigation button because the button just has an e on it. And since the e is not self explanatory I have added a tool tip.

[Burnley84]

cheers gary, will have a play around with it.

[Jimi King]

I'd recommend registering with Google Webmaster Tools and to then upload a sitemap, which will tell Google where all the pages are. You can create a sitemap here:

http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

You may also find this site useful. It reads your webpages just like a search engine spider does and shows you the results:

http://www.feedthebot.com/tools/spider/index.php

[PeteS]

Sitemaps can also be exported with your website from WD7P and DP7 by ticking the option in Web Properties -> Publish tab. As they get generated and exported with your site when you export it, you don't need to manuall ypublish anything else to your web server as the publish feature in the program will handle it for you.