PDA

View Full Version : I need some help on a targeting issue

BlueStar7
03-23-2006, 10:28 PM
I believe this to be a targeting issue at least - I honestly don't know what else to do or how to figure this one out. I've noticed on a few sites that as you're going through the web site, the address never changes(ex. http://www.thisaddress.com is always the same whether you on the index page or on a contact or forms page). Is there a certain way to set that? I ran across one page and tried to examine its HTML but the only thing I could find was: <base target="main">

If I set that up on a page for myself, it just disallows all links on my page from working...you can click, but they take you no where. I don't understand what to do - I looked around and found only information on base targeting as it applies to frames, but the site I pulled it from originally, http://www.absolutecommunications.net, is not a frames site.

Thanks for any kind of advice or help,

Ryan
_Aerospace_Eng_
03-23-2006, 10:36 PM
Yeah you need to put your site in a frameset if you don't want the url to actually "change". The source code for that site is as follows:
<html>

<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<title>Absolute Communications, LLC.</title>
<meta name="keywords" content="nortel, telecom, telephone, business, equipment, nortel, voice mail, network, cable, router, internet, corporate, office, gear, used, repair, classified, network, BCM, Key Systems, Phones, Voicemail, Digital Line Cards, Telecommunications, Headsets, KSU, Office Supply, Software">
<meta name="description" content="Absolute Communications is a Tampa Bay area provider of Nortel equipment and systems. We install, maintain, upgrade and warranty Nortel systems and telephones.">
<meta name="language" content="en-us">
<meta name="robots" content="ALL">
<meta name="rating" content="SAFE FOR KIDS">
<meta name="distribution" content="GLOBAL">
<meta name="classification" content="Business and Economy">
<meta name="copyright" content="2004 Absolute Communications, LLC.">
<meta name="author" content="Absolute Communications, LLC.">
<meta name="revisit-after" content="15 Days">
</head>

<frameset framespacing="0" border="0" frameborder="0" rows="*,2">
<frame name="main" src="center.html" target="main">
<frame name="footer" scrolling="no" noresize target="main" src="foot.html">
<noframes>
<body topmargin="0" leftmargin="0" rightmargin="0" bottommargin="0">

<p>This page uses frames, but your browser doesn't support them.</p>

</body>
</noframes>
</frameset>
</html>

That is in fact a frameset.
bustamelon
03-23-2006, 10:36 PM
Most likely the site(s) in question use(s) FRAMES.
The way it works is that the "page" consists of 2 or more parts, woven together by a parent. An example of this is if you go to google and do an image search, then click on one of the results, you'll see a frame on top with the thumbnail image, and the actual image on the bottom frame. The idea is that a crucial piece of the page, such as the navigation, remains in sight at all times, in the same spot. A link from the bottom frame loads a new page in the bottom frame, but the overall "page", hasn't changed -- it's just calling up different "children".

There are several disadvantages to using this approach though, the most obvious being the lack of search engine friendliness. The same or similar results can usually be acheived using stylesheets.

Can I ask why the idea appeals to you?
BlueStar7
03-24-2006, 01:15 PM
Well I didn't know it was actually a frames set at all. I don't like using frames at all. If you go through the different pages on their site it doesn't seem to have any static frames anywhere that I can see - although I never use frames so I guess it could be occuring in some way I've never read about.

I only wanted to utilize the idea of the url never changing, to me that gives the site a more clean look overall if it stays like that(don't ask me why, just a strange idea I have in my head that makes it look good). But if it is not a good idea outside of how it looks, than I don't believe I should follow it.

So basically that frames page that was called Main, that is just a reference for all other pages to land on when they are visited? I was wondering how they can keep that frame from never being displayed, but if it is the target main and all links throughout the site are sent to main, I suppose thats how it works...that they all load into the index.html frame called main? Or at least something along those lines.

Does that actually hurt you in search engines?
ronaldb66
03-24-2006, 01:38 PM
Does that actually hurt you in search engines? Yes it does, as it interferes with linking to your pages from outside your site--which is a very important criterium for SE ranking, as well as a usability drawback.

All in all, I'd say it would be a very unwise idea, based solely on the notion of the URLs "looking good" (which is debatable to begin with).
bustamelon
03-24-2006, 05:26 PM
You might be interested in using apache's mod_rewrite directive, which lets you rewrite your URLs in just about any way you like. When I do a site in PHP, unless it's just a quickie static site, I use mod_rewrite to redirect all requests to one main app, which explodes the requested URI into an array, then serves up content based on the URL array. No file extensions or gnarly query strings.