Javascript problem

[Panos]

Hello David, i am here again i think i need your valuable help again...

So i had a problem in my website and with the help of Google's forum i find
out that in the main page of my website i have 2 links that is Javascript
links ( i really dont know how i created these ). This links deny the
Googlebot to catch my page. When i turned off in Firefox the option "enable
javascript" i saw that i couldnt access these links. The strange is that in
all my website i have many many links and eveything works fine, only those
two links has this problem, do you know how can i remove the javascript from
the links??

URL: www.europe-hotels.gr

The problematic links are those " Search by city " and " Search by country "
above the map..

Any reccomendation would be highly appreciate


Panos

 

[Rob Giordano \(Crash\)]

Those links don't work in FF or IE

 

[Panos]

Thank you Rob,

So thats mean that i have to change the current design in those links.



Best regards
Panos

 

[DavidF]

The two links you quoted are not javascript links. The only javascript you
have on that page is associated with the google stuff. Open the page, view
the Source code, and then use the find feature to look for "search by city",
and you will see there is nothing in there about javascript. But if you
search for javascript, it is associated with the google stuff.

The links work ok in IE6 but not FF3.0. Rob might be running IE7. It appears
that the links have been converted to an image in FF. Ungroup them, or pull
the text outside the "design" you have them in, or perhaps make sure that
those designs don't overlap the map below it.

Bye the way, you asked about being penalized by google before... I wouldn't
be surprised if you were being docked for the huge list of cities at the
bottom of this page. I am pretty sure that this practice is a no no these
days....but I could be wrong.

DavidF

 

[Rob Giordano \(Crash\)]

IE7, FF2, Safari 2

home page behaves identically in all three browsers:

The Search by Country is active but just reloads the same page (no search as
it suggests)
The Search by City is dead, doesn't do anything, does not appear to be a
link.

The auto-play audio from the video on the bottom of the page is REALLY
annoying.

This is different than it was this morning.




--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression

 

[DavidF]

Hi Rob,

I guess I am going to have to install IE7 again. I didn't like it the first
time I used it, but there won't be any new users of IE6 now that XP isn't
available anymore. I did install the new version of FF, and I do like it...

I think you discovered an overall navigation problem with the site. It took
me a while to sort out, but if you go to http://www.europe-hotels.gr/ that
page displays a map with cities. If you click the Search by Country link, it
displays a page with a map with countries. The Country and City links are
deactivated on their corresponding pages, but the active links now work in
FF3 and IE6. The actual "search" is from the links on the maps.

In my opinion, Panos needs to add some directions above each map as to how
to "search" the cities...or the countries. I know from mousing over the map
that there are links that will search the different cities and the different
countries, but many viewers will get confused as to what to do once they
find the map. Panos needs to better explain the whole process, and possible
remove the link to the City page when on the city page, and the link to the
Country page when on the country page.... I am not sure what exactly he
should do, but right now it is too confusing and he needs to add directions.
My two cents worth...

DavidF

 

[Rob Giordano \(Crash\)]

Ack! You're right about that, and the search button positions change too.

Sorry Panos, but that is totally goofy! No one will figure that out -
especially with that strange music blasting.



--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression

 

[Panos]

Dear David, Rob,

First of all thank you for the time you spending looking my site and your
suggestions, i agree with you and i will process in the following changes:

1) i will remove the "search by city" button from the city page
2) i will remove the "search by country" button in the country page

i am thinking to remove the huge text at the bottom of the first page but
the big disadvantage with that is that because i dont have any text in my
first page, the search engines, would not catch my page when someone search
for ex. Athens hotels ( because there will not be a text about Athens )
Also in keywords i cannot add all the cities i want because there are
limitations in number of words. Any suggestion?

What do you think to keep the video in the "search by country" page without
the music? do you think is it nice? or better to remove it completely?

Again thanks a lot for your support
Panos

 

[Panos]

Rob, can you also explain me what you mean" the search button positions
change too" which buttons you mean? in which page?

Thanks
Panos

 

[DavidF]

I think that removing the appropriate button makes sense....but perhaps
there is a better way. I would add some text above the map that explains to
the viewer how to use the map to search for hotels and the reason for the
page. It is not clear what the viewer is supposed to do. Within that text
you can give the people the option of searching by country or by city, and
then provide the link to the appropriate map. I don't know exactly what I
would do...I just think you need to work on making things more clear to the
viewer.

It is up to you to decide what to do about the keywords and the list of
cities. I only offered an observation, and a thought about how this might be
the reason you were being penalized. I am not an SEO expert.

The page loads very slowly. I am not a fan of music on a web page in
general. I think that you would alienate more people than attract. They
don't come to that page to listen to music...or even to watch a slide
show...they want to search for a hotel. I personally like clean fast loading
pages without a lot of bells and whistles. Ask yourself if adding a design
element will contribute to the goal and reason for that page, or is a
distraction. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should.
But, once again, this is your site, not mine.

DavidF

 

[Rob Giordano \(Crash\)]

Keywords are not as important as they used to be, meaningful text content is
what you want.

As far as the video goes, just don't make it auto-play (sorry I don't know
how to do this but I'm sure you can)



--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression

 

[Rob Giordano \(Crash\)]

Yah... if you click on Search by Country (on the left) and are taken to that
page then the Search by Country switches positions with Search by City so
it's now on the right.

It'd be much better if it was just one button that toggled the
searches...but really it's NOT a search. When I pushed the Search xxx button
I was expecting a regular search box to open - Maybe it should be a Display
Cities / Country button?

Another thing that was confusing to me - because those little red dots on
the map are animated I was trying to select them to be taken to those pages
but the red dots are not part of the hyperlink. Personally, I'd not use
animated dots anyway, but at least make the dots part of the hyperlink.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression

 

[Panos]

I make some tests with adding only one button above the map, but the true is
that i didnt like much because it was not symetric..I decided another option
to keep both buttons, and activate only the one in each page and keep the
other coloured ( like it is selected ). I also change the text like you
suggested Rob, "display cities" and " display countries"

I also remove the huge text at the bottom of the page and replace it with
something that will look more natural to the Google.

I also remove the video in the " by country page" as you mentioned, it was
true that it was too much, and also i notice that it caused some problems in
the whole page.

The only small problem i have now is that in the "by country page" at the
bottom text box i get all the text in bold but in the publisher file all the
text are selected like regular ( not bold ). I suppose that happen because
the above links " hotels in london, hotels in paris etc. " are placed with
html code fragment and i have choose the text to be bold, so maybe the bold
color remain and at the textbox in the bottom of the page. Do you know how i
can remove it?

 

[Rob Giordano \(Crash\)]

Online that very bottom textbox that begins with "EUROPE-HOTELS.GR..." is
not displaying here as Bold. Try refreshing your browser F5. Also that
textbox has been converted to an image so it won't show up in Google.

The Display Countries Display Cities seems better...at least to me



--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression

 

[Panos]

In Firefox its diplayed like an image but in IE7 its correct displayed like
text. Do you know why that happen and what i can do ?

 

[Panos]

Ok i fix it by adding the outline of the box in different box