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Yes, you can put a linked picture next to a search result. The PicoSearch search results will list the
pages on your site that contain the searched terms. You can place a
product photo or page icon next to predetermined pages to give
additional page information, and even resemble a product catalog. There is more than one way to do accomplish this effect, so see below for which works best for you. And because the picture is linked along with the title of the page, paid accounts can use the template code PICO_CLASS_A_TITLE to set the class and thus affect the link style.
- Linked pictures can be found with Automatic Data Extraction patterns using Page Definitions. This method won't require editing your website, but it does require that your pages already have pictures on them somewhere that can be found easily by patterns at indexing time. Online product catalogs could be perfect for this, for example, so see the page definitions FAQ for details.
- Individual linked pictures are easily and accurately added to the search results for particular pages by embedding the special PICOLINKPIC tag in the page to specify the image URL and any attributes needed. This way the picture doesn't need to be found on the page anywhere else, as it would need to be for Automatic Data Extraction. Full instructions are listed below for this approach.
- If you have an iconic image that should be shown for many different files whose URLs all fit a pattern, and you
are a paid account, you can use a template code to specify linked picture
patterns so that you don't have to put a tag or picture in every file; see PICO_TEMPLATE_LINKPIC.
Using the PICOLINKPIC tag: For each page that you want a picture to appear, add the following
special tag to the HTML in that page. Usually the head is a good place
to add special PicoSearch tags, but they should work anywhere. This tag's syntax specifies the full URL to a
picture for the page, with optional height and width information. For
example:
<!-- PICOLINKPIC="http://www.mysite.com/pageicon.gif" -->
OR with width and height information specified:
<!-- PICOLINKPIC="http://www.mysite.com/pageicon.gif" width="30"
height="25" -->
You can also specify additional attributes that will stay in the
image tag, such as alt text and border style as seen in the following
example (the old attribute border="1" will also work but we're
recommending the xhtml compliant style sheet solution)
<!-- PICOLINKPIC="http://www.mysite.com/pageicon.gif" width="30"
height="25" alt="description" style="border:1;" -->
The image will then appear next to the results when that page comes up in a search.
Normally it will link to the page just like the clickable page title.
However you can send the image to a different URL, for example if it is a
special offers icon that should lead a new user to a sign-up page. So
if you include an HREF, and even an optional TARGET, these will be
applied to an anchor around the image. For example:
<!-- PICOLINKPIC="http://www.mysite.com/pageicon.gif" href="http://www.mysite.com/signup.html" -->
Or with the target specified to bring up a new page:
<!-- PICOLINKPIC="http://www.mysite.com/pageicon.gif" width="30"
height="25" href="http://www.mysite.com/signup.html" target="_blank" -->
If you combine the image icon techniques with a good standardized usage
of title and/or meta-description display (see your Account Manager's
Configure Results options), and make sure that you have one website page per
product or piece of information, you will be able to simulate a database
of products and ideas rather nicely!
For related issues, see:
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