Dynamic URLs In The Eyes Of A Search Engine

Dynamic URLs In The Eyes Of A Search Engine

2003-06-01 - Most Web sites with a large number of pages are developed using dynamic server-side Web technologies such as Hypertext PreProcessor (.php), Java Server Pages (.jsp), Active Server Pages (.asp), ColdFusion (.cfm) and Perl. These technologies provide programmers with the tools to build sites so that adding product or pages does not require extensive HTML work. In reality, all high volume sites must use one of these technologies in order to maximize efficiency and stay profitable.

Please discuss this article in this thread. You can read the article here .

Although I agree with everything said in this very useful article, I don't believe people need to start going nuts on mod_rewite.

I have had great success through an overall strategy (meaning not looking to get #1 for certain pages, but instead top10/20 for ALL (ok, many) pages) by truncating as much as possible the arguments created by the dynamic systems and making sure that good SEO techniques are used (including Hx tags and strong keyword links).

Now the one interesting thing that I have noticed is that although all pages past the homepage have a PR of zero, I have still been able to get top 10/20 rankings on almost every page that google has crawled.

bottom line - do your SEO work properly and it will pay off not matter what the URL string says.

Piel, "no matter what the URL strong says" is not going to work. As you said, short URLs are ok.

I do not tell people it is a must to change your URLs through a mod_rewrite. I simply discuss the issues with dynamic URLs. I can tell you that mod_rewrites do dramtically help SEs locate your pages.

But your right, the shorter the urls (less variables) more likely a SE will include that page in the SERPs. But I do say that in the article.

SEO work includes this, so to do your SEO work properly, you must take this into account.

Thanks for your feedback. I do appreciate it.

Are there any tutorials or references about implementing mod_rewrite? I looked at official documentation, but I need something more specific and moron-friendly. I need it for a site done in PHP.

I am not aware of any, maybe some of the members here are???

It doesn't answer the PHP portion, but I use ASP on a 404 page to simulate mod_rewrite. Allows me to use the same old dynamic pages (about.asp?page_id=1, page_id=2, etc...) while masking them with friendly URLs.

For example, www.domain.com/Widgets/Brown-Widgets/ is actually about.asp?page_id=23.

If anyone is interested, I'll post it. Uses database, allows for a site search on the 404 page is the correct URL is not found (Widgets/Brown-dadfoi?/ would show a search page). Anyway, I like it

-Jeff

Professional Website Design

I'd also be interested in seeing something posted about it. Currently I have several shopping sites where the URI looks like:

http://mydomain.com/category.php?c=...ce62bb351ea2a32

I'd much prefer something like:

http://mydomain.com/necklaces.html

to display. Not only for SE friendliness, but it would be just far more user friendly.

Diana

Thanks Jeff, I think you should post it for everyone.

Diana, your using PHP not ASP and a mod_rewrite on your server in combination with PHP and Database would work fine. I am not able to tell you how to do it, I just know it should be done. I have a team that would be able to help you, PM me if you like.

Thanks.

Well, I'm looking at my logs, and it raises a question about my 404 transfer page to simulate mod rewrite. Would love some insight on this.


GoogleBot is FINALLY deep-crawling the new site. The 404 page is called "branch.asp", and it takes the Server Variable "QUERY_STRING" to get the requested page (in ASP this variable usually contains "404;" and then the requested page, like "404;http://www.domain.com/Category/page.html"

Well, when a user comes to the site, it's all transparent. In the URL, they see http://www.domain.com/Category/page.html, and the server loads the content from the database using the old page engines, like about.asp?page_id=23, etc...

BUT... In my logs, it has this...

2003-09-05 13:20:17 64.68.82.55 - ..... GET /branch.asp 404;http://www.domain.com/About/current-news.html 200 0 207 281 ... www.googlebot.com/bot.html)


It's like this for normal visitors too. The response status is set to 200, so I'd think everything is ok, but... someone say "It's ok, Google will index www.domain.com/About.current-news.html , and not www.domain.com/branch.asp ".


Insight greeeatly appreciated, as I'm getting more paranoid by the second Since, ya know, I'm currently working on a client's site using the same tactic

Thanks,

-Jeff

Well, I looked at my logs a little later in the day, and noticed that Google had come back and crawled pages that were only linked to by the pages I was concerned about.

If it was able to follow the link back for a second pass, getting all the deeper content, than everything must be fine

The file is attached (text file), and notes on usage are included within.


In the notes, I reference a search page for true 404s. So if someone types in http://www.domain.com/crapola, and there's no matching page in the database, a search is performed on the database table for "crapola", and results are listed in the search page. Makes for a nice 404, keeps customers on the site.

Take a look: www.infotogo.net/design . Let me know if you want this posted as well.

P.S. Still asking for a site review, including SEO and content critique, sales ability, etc.. If anyone is game, I would appreciate it

www.infotogo.net <-- here ya go

Thanks,

Jeff

Professional Website Design

cool thanks

I'm working on a "Mod_Rewrite made easy" article. I need to do a little more research but it should be finished with a week or two.
I'll send it to admin here for publishing as an article when done.

Mod_rewrite is also the best solution for many online shops that are dynamic and call product details from a database. Hence my decision to write a 'laymans' guide to it. It can make a great difference to the depth of crawling and indexation of more pages is very common. Amazon didnt re-code/use mod_rewrite on their whole shop system to produce flat urls for their health :-)
Since they did so, they are much more prevelant in the SERPs (Many say TOO prevalent).

Thanks Webby!

Awesome Webby! Any ideas when you'll publish this article?

I'm definetely looking forward to it. I'm a DIY'er for life... If I can learn to it myself, I do it myself...

Diana

It is simple ISAPI Filter which make your dynamic URLs like

URL

into

URL

You can order that filter here:

URL

And check how it is working for that e-commerce website

URL

(7500 dynamic pages in GOOGLE!)