I would love some advice on the following, Ive searched the web and more confused than before I started.What i want to do is have a site which sells products which are not generally related.Is it better to have folders for each product or sub domains for each product?My understanding is that your root directory can only have one index.html file ie www.mydomain.com/index.htm will be my frist product and www.mydomain.com/product2.htm would be my second product with separate folders for each and so on?If i set up subdomains will this enable me to have a separate index.html file for each prouct, i.e product1.mydomain.com. it's a new site so age of site is not important for existing rankings.The main advantage i see with subdomains is you can have your keyword in the URL.Any sort of advice would be great.I'm not after a main home page where trafic is directed to each productfrom the visitor.

Thanks in advance.

This doesn't really pertain to SS per se, but I will answer for you.

What you are talking about doesn't need a sub domain (usually another full site or area, independent of your main content.) You don't want a differing index page for each product unless each product is getting it's own full site.

Your example is your answer. If you are going to have a "page" for each of your products, each page will have it's own name. (index.html vs product12.html) The information for all the pages (images, media, geometric graphics) are kept in the same folders. So your root directory "mydomainname.com" will contain each of the pages (index.html, product1.html, etc) as well as the folders that contain the bits and pieces necessary to populate those pages.

Here is where SiteSpinner (and any other decent editor) makes web design easy for you...

When you write code manually you have to know, amongst other things, how to write the paths for EACH item that shows on a web page. If you have 5 pictures on a page.. each one has a bit of code that tells a browser where it is, how it should be displayed, where it goes on the page and what to do with it if someone touches it with a mouse.

SiteSpinner writes all that code for you. And when you use it to upload your files on to your hosts server, it will create the folders necessary and insert the right bit into the right place.

I see you have 85 posts here so this may be a very elementary explanation, but your question makes me feel like it might be necessary.

If not, I apologize.

Good luck

PS... In thinking about your question I thought I might give you an additional piece of SiteSpinner advice.. DO NOT open a new project for each page you design within a site.

Add pages to the .ims file that holds your index page. That allows you and SiteSpinner to access the content from within the root directory rather than sending your browser away from your site and then back in.

Sort of like keeping you from walking out of your front door and into your backdoor to go from the living room to the kitchen.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: CassandrasVox,

Thanks for your reply...I thought it was relevant to post this type of question in the general discussion, even though not directly related to SS.This next part is sort of related to SS....If I had 3 products....1st product structure Public_html\image\etc with an index.html in the root dirctory.Next product...Public_html\prouduct2\image\etc\...index.html...so on for other products, I think it makes it so much easier to edit your project and delete relevant files and directories rather than hunting through folders and files..

Thanks
Crows

You should only have 1 index file per site as that is considered by browsers the parent directory of any website.

Each product will have its own page. While you may find it easier to store each products info in its own file on your local (home) machine, if you want clean code, a fast loading site, using a root directory containing all pertinent pages and files is the way tech standard goes.

Your theory is like saying you want a closet for each piece of your clothing because it makes your shirts easier to find. Hopefully you don't live in a studio apt.

As far as editing goes... again SiteSpinner or any competent editor does all the work for you,
that being essentially the whole reason for an editor.

Where deleting comes into play.. your idea would use ALOT more space on any server than just doing regular edits, even without deleting unused files.

Personally, if I have a site I edit frequently (my own homepage for example as I use it for staging client sites before they go live) I will quarterly go in at a low traffic time, back up and take down the entire site and reload the current working version of all pages and files.

It takes about an hour max on my broadband connection and makes sure that I clean up my servers.

I would be interested to see a bit of the code you are producing with your method. Do you have a site we can look at?