In the past Maryland website design created rollover buttons using graphics programs like Adobe Photoshop and/or Macromedia Fireworks, and embedded them on their web page with all the unfriendly code that is needed for the rollover effect. The problem with doing this can be two-fold. First, search engines prefer text links because text is always optimal and they can also put their desired keywords in the text of the link, which can help boost their rankings. Images are also seen as inferior to html, since search engine spiders are not able to scan images as effectively as plain text.

When <URL SNIPPED>Maryland website design creates navigation with graphical buttons, they lose out on both of these benefits and risk having some of their web pages not indexed by the search engine spiders. This is why well-optimized web pages have text links at the bottom of the page; text makes it easier for search engines to spider their site and compensate for the primary navigation menu.

CSS allows them to create these buttons without having any images visible on their html code (which is where search engines spider). Furthermore, they can embed them desired keyword phrase(s) as the text for links. Try these steps and you will see how easy it is to simulate the rollover button effect, how much more effective your web site will be for the desired targeted keywords and how much faster your web page will be to load.

thanks for the tip