Inlcudes.....Search engines

[real_estate]

If I use includes for my website pages will the search engines see them?

[pcdoc]

yes

[webmaster]

No

Well I guess we are kind of both right, includes are SSI (Server side includes) - so in terms of the code used to create and execute the include no the search engines wont see it, however the content within the include will be seen as normal content (The SE cant tell it is an include at all)

[Search Engine Book]

With search engines aside, I recommend using includes in some form or fashion if you plan to do a lot of site maintenance. Includes are especially helpful when you have a large site. You can take all of the common elements (header, menu, footer, etc.) and save them as separate include files.

Talk about a time-saver! And as previously mentioned, the page gets "assembled" on the server side, so the search engine just sees the complete code like any other page.

I remember the day I learned to use includes properly. Man, did I feel like a dummy for all the time I had wasted on page-by-page maintenance.

Good luck.

-Brandon

[webmaster]

If you can't figure out includes and have dreamweaver there is also a sitewide search and replace function