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Web page templates
are generally used as an efficient way to build a website.
Changes can be made to a template in an application such
as Dreamweaver and all pages can automatically be updated
in seconds. These changes can then be uploaded to the host
and like magic the whole site is updated.
The strength
of using templates is also a weakness in terms of search
engine optimization. While templates are a great way to
update a website, they are by their very nature inflexible.
By default, in many web page creation applications, when
changes are made to the metatags of the template, these
changes show up across all pages using this template.
Suppose your
website is based on 10 different but essential keywords
relating to your business and you wish to optimize 10 different
pages, one for each keyword. By using the default web creation
application settings you will have the same metatag information
for all pages instead of meta information that is unique
for each page you wish to optimize.
Generally, you
are able to dissociate these pages from the template and
then optimize all of the metatags for each of your different
keywords. Now you have a problem, though of how to update
these 10 pages, quickly and easily. If you want to add a
new link to these pages, you have to do so for all 10 pages
instead of just once on your template.
Suppose you
have 50 or 100 pages instead of 10? You workload now may
take hour instead of seconds. Though not the default, some
web page creation applications will let you move your meta
keywords and description manually between the editable regions
in the head area of the html.
Example1:
<!-- TemplateBeginEditable
name="head" -->
<meta name="keywords"
content="test, test2, test3">
<meta name="description" content="test
of the emergency broadcast system.">
<!-- TemplateEndEditable
-->
Example2:
<!-- #BeginEditable
"doctitle" -->
<meta name="keywords"
content="test, test2, test3">
<meta name="description" content="test
of the emergency broadcast system.">
<!-- #EndEditable
-->
This is one solution. Another is when building your website,
to define your editable and non-editable regions of your
templates carefully with search engine optimization in mind.
If a website is built too rigidly, the search engine optimization
techniques will not be easily incorporated into the site.
If a website is built too loosely, then you will lose the
ability to update the site readily.
Most websites
are built with efficiency in mind without regard to search
engine optimization or with search engine optimization as
an afterthought. A more ideal situation is to build the
website from the ground up with both efficiency and search
engine optimization in mind.
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