I'm looking to take the <script> section from the top of my web pages and put it into an external file. That way the main body of the website is higher up the page and will (hopefully) rank better on search engines.

The <script> section looks like this :

<script>
<!--
function popup(myUrl) {
var topBars = 'directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,t itlebar=no,toolbar=no,dependent=yes';
var myOptions = 'scrollbars=yes,width=500,height=400,resizeable=no ,top=0,left=0';
var myFeatures = topBars+','+myOptions;
var newWin = open(myUrl+'?referer='+document.URL,'',myFeatures) ;
newWin.focus();
}

function MM_goToURL() { //v3.0
var i, args=MM_goToURL.arguments; document.MM_returnValue = false;
for (i=0; i<(args.length-1); i+=2) eval(args[i]+".location='"+args[i+1]+"'");
}

function MM_openBrWindow(theURL,winName,features) { //v2.0
window.open(theURL,winName,features);
}

function MM_preloadImages() { //v3.0
var d=document; if(d.images){ if(!d.MM_p) d.MM_p=new Array();
var i,j=d.MM_p.length,a=MM_preloadImages.arguments; for(i=0; i<a.length; i++)
if (a[i].indexOf("#")!=0){ d.MM_p[j]=new Image; d.MM_p[j++].src=a[i];}}
}

function MM_swapImgRestore() { //v3.0
var i,x,a=document.MM_sr; for(i=0;a&&i<a.length&&(x=a[i])&&x.oSrc;i++) x.src=x.oSrc;
}

function MM_findObj(n, d) { //v4.01
var p,i,x; if(!d) d=document; if((p=n.indexOf("?"))>0&&parent.frames.length) {
d=parent.frames[n.substring(p+1)].document; n=n.substring(0,p);}
if(!(x=d[n])&&d.all) x=d.all[n]; for (i=0;!x&&i<d.forms.length;i++) x=d.forms[i][n];
for(i=0;!x&&d.layers&&i<d.layers.length;i++) x=MM_findObj(n,d.layers[i].document);
if(!x && d.getElementById) x=d.getElementById(n); return x;
}

function MM_swapImage() { //v3.0
var i,j=0,x,a=MM_swapImage.arguments; document.MM_sr=new Array; for(i=0;i<(a.length-2);i+=3)
if ((x=MM_findObj(a[i]))!=null){document.MM_sr[j++]=x; if(!x.oSrc) x.oSrc=x.src; x.src=a[i+2];}
}
//-->
</script>

the page it is taken from is www.safariquip.co.uk

Is is possible to make this section an external file that is called up by the page when it loads?

I think it could be done but it wouldent help your websites search engine rank. The search engine reads what the outcome of the page is not the hard code. The search engine see's it as all words. So putting your script in an external file wouldent help because it would still see the outcome of the script. Unless the script prints out a huge long pharagraph I suggest leave it the way it is.

I would like a second opinion on this because I am not totally sure of the answer I gave you only 99%

I back virus up with an extra 1%

SEO...the closer to the top of the webpage the text / source code is found, the better it ranks as the more important it is deemed to be.

If I can put 50 lines of code into one line, calling an external file, the text on the page will be made *much* more important and rankings will get higher.

Any suggestions for putting the code into an external file?

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript" SRC="your_script.js" TYPE="text/javascript"> </SCRIPT>

Java script is unreliable in my opinion go for php . Sorry for giving you the wrong advice, but I was really 99% sure that the search engines only read the text and took the source code only into account! Sorry for missinforming you