[Cyndalie]

"How do you look on the server at the file? " First you download the file to your drive (via FTP) and view it in a notepad.

Ok this is kinda hard to explain..

Have you ever viewed a .cfm or .whatever file in a text pad BEFORE it is uploaded to the server or viewed from the web? Cold fusion is the worst with this.. In a text pad, not an HTML editor.

I can't type exact code or it can mess up the board but the actual page source of smutdrs look like this:

cfinclude template = " app_globals.cfm "

from head to foot. They had to manually put in metas at the top of the page, even though one of the template includes plugs it in- there even are no open and close html tags even in the actual code of the page. Because it was in a include and engines read the HTML code, if they did not do it manually the engines had nothing to read or index the site on.

BUT when you view it from the web, all content is plugged in so what you see is NOT what you necessarily have to work with when optimizing dymanic sites. Since engines are robots and not humans calling a page, they can read what the programming code looks like - this used to be applied to cloaking several years ago. Show the engine one thing and the user another - but by IP, here it's because dymanic content reacts when it's CALLED, not necessarily read. This is why when the code is cached and viewed in a brower, it even looks normal as well.

Most sites consist of both HTML and whatever dynamic programming language, and they can actually work FOR you, however if you have a say when working with a programmer, make sure they are not making 100% of your site dynamically generated it it will become optimization hell. I haven't run across this much, and look for it before committing to new site for optimization.


WSJB78 you had some great points I'm going to delve further into. I know I'm not 100% right, but this is what I have seen and worked with and it can be frustrating, since every language and site is different.