Read CSS tutorials - have questions

[aces]

I read through Stephan's CSS tutorials and watched his video, and even managed to replicate the example CSS-styled web page.

 

Question is, what if I want that left column with its navigation links to appear on more than one page?

 

I tried the php "include" command on a test site, but it looked like the contents of the included file did not appear in the code. This means the contents would not be visible to a search engine spider. Am I right?

 

On the other hand, if I set up templates in Dreamweaver, I don't have to create any include files, and spiders would be able to read all the code. Is that a good option?

 

If it looks like I'm totally in a fog - you're right!

[virtual]

You are quite right, the contents of the php include do not appear in the code, that is not necessarily important for the search engine because it can also follow links and still see the code.

The main reason for using php includes is so that when your site has over 100 pages you only have to modify one file and not go into each page individually and modify the information, thus saving you and your client time and money.

[Wickham]

That's an interesting question.

 

I presume Google can only look at the page AFTER the server has processed the "include" file, so by the time Google looks at the page, the navbar, header, footer or whatever was in the include file is actually in the finished page.

[falkencreative]

I presume Google can only look at the page AFTER the server has processed the "include" file, so by the time Google looks at the page, the navbar, header, footer or whatever was in the include file is actually in the finished page.

 

That's what I have assumed too. It can't look directly at the PHP -- it looks at the final rendered file.

[aces]

Thank you all for the responses. php include does seem like the more flexible solution. In the meantime I also watched Stefan's videos on php include, so I should be good to go.