using hover <a> portfolio and SEO page rank

[macmankc]

I've never blogged - hope I'm doing this right . . .

Greetings from a CSS semi-beginner !

I’ve been using the hover portfolio technique from dynamicdrive.com at http://www.graphicconnectionkc.com/portfolio/index.html (http://www.graphicconnectionkc.com)
for quite some time now, and have been very pleased with the technique.

Question: Dreamweaver sees these as “broken” <a> tags - does Google?


About 3 weeks ago Google threw my page-rank to the toilet by a 90% drop.

I discovered some broken links on my index page due to cut-n-paste without paying enough attention to nested folder directory issues. I’m sure this was a MAJOR cause, but now I want be sure I have NO broken links that could hurt my page rank.

Any thoughts on this technique and SEO?

[macmankc]

I've never blogged - hope I'm doing this right . . .

Greetings from a CSS semi-beginner !

I’ve been using the hover portfolio technique from dynamicdrive.com at http://www.graphicconnectionkc.com/portfolio/index.html (http://www.graphicconnectionkc.com)
for quite some time now, and have been very pleased with the technique.

Question: Dreamweaver sees these as “broken” <a> tags - does Google?


About 3 weeks ago Google threw my page-rank to the toilet by a 90% drop.

I discovered some broken links on my index page due to cut-n-paste without paying enough attention to nested folder directory issues. I’m sure this was a MAJOR cause, but now I want be sure I have NO broken links that could hurt my page rank.

Any thoughts on this technique and SEO?

[bluewalrus]

If that is all you have then yes that is broken. A link is suppose to point somewhere and be closed


<a href="address" any other attributes you want>TEXT TO DISPLAY</a>

If you want a more detailed description or if this isn't what your looking for put your code, a link, or more information.

[macmankc]

My portfolio uses the <a> tags combined with <span> tags to operate. Example:



<a class="thumbnail" href="#thumb"><img src="../images/portfolio/brochures/brochure_thumbs/briarwood_thumb.gif" alt="Briarwood Apartments brochure thumbnail" width="38" height="72" border="0"/><span><img src="../images/portfolio/brochures/brochures_over/briarwood.gif" alt="Briarwood Apartments brochure" width="404" height="154"/></span></a>


as one hovers over the thumbnail, a large image is revealed. But since they are not "real" links, I wonder if Google down-rates the page-rank of sites that use this technique.

[bluewalrus]

You don't need the span you could make a class, but to your question that shouldn't down rank your page, that is a valid link. If your looking for an answer of why your page decreased in rank you'd have to be more specific. I find it hard to believe your page rank dropped 90% though since Google only ranks on a 1-10 scale and 90% would mean you were at 10, which I've only seen Google at. Look at your logs and compare traffic levels see if they decreased also. If you want us to look at your code and see if we observe something that could be causing a decrease post a link or all the code. If you don't have logs over your traffic consider creating them or some free scripting like Google analyticals or try https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=sitemaps&passive=true&nui=1&continue=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fwebmasters%2Ftools%2Fdashboard%3Fpli%3D1&followup=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fwebmasters%2Ftools%2Fdashboard%3Fpli%3D1&hl=en

[macmankc]

Thanks.

It's Dreamweaver that says all of the thumb links are "broken" since they are only used to reveal the (previously hidden) larger image. I just wonder if the Google robots view it the same way.

I was getting and average on 35 visitors/day, and finally got to a "1" rank of the "1-10"
after much effort, and suddenly fell to about 3-4 visitor/day about 3 weeks ago.

[bluewalrus]

This is just html? When is dreamweaver saying the link is broken I've never had dreamweaver tell me anything about a link try this and see what the result is.

http://validator.w3.org/

[macmankc]

Yes - It's 100% valid XHTML and CSS (I'm real anal about valid code)
That's what I like about this portfolio technique - no Flash or Java Script needed.

Dreamweaver will check all of your site under SITE > Check Links Sitewide

I have eliminated all the REAL broken links, but am not anxious to redo all of my portfolio pages using a different method, but if Google doesn't like it . . .

[macmankc]

I just found the original code that I adopted on the (this) site, it's at:

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/style/csslibrary/item/css-image-gallery/

[macmankc]

Sorry Guys - I'm trying this again (I've never posted on a blog before)
I think I was just confusing the issue, although bluewalrus was trying to figure me out.

The above link, from this site, when used:

Dreamweaver flags the .thumb tags as "broken" links.

I love the technique, but am wondering if Google sees them as "broken" too
and hurting my page-rank?

[jscheuer1]

Doubtful. It would depend upon how badly they are broken, and/or if you really want their href values indexed. A lot of code uses:

<a href="# . . ." . . .

This could possibly be considered broken, but I don't think it's anything to worry about. If you want them not to be broken, place this (highlighted) in your source:


<body>

<div id="container">
<a name="thumb"></a>
<div id="header">

<div id="chrome_header">
<img src="../images/template_slices/header_slice.png" width="816" height="131" alt="chrome header background" /> </div>
<div id="flash_header">