Re: Cleaner URLs

This WebDNA talk-list message is from

2003

It keeps the original formatting. numero = 50371
interpreted = N
texte = What I do--probably most suitable for sites with less than thousands of items, but the process could always run in the middle of the night for a big store--is write all my product, category, and usually information pages to static files without parameters passed, using a WebDNA process with INCLUDE and WRITEFILE (see for example my stores at http://store.ic.org and http://www.communitymade.com). It gives me very clean URLs with HTML extensions, and meaningful names, all of which is great for the search engines. I store my cart ID in a cookie, so I never pass it from page to page. I run my cart, searchresults, checkout pages dynamically--don't want the search engines to find those anyway.Getting this working so it will all run correctly dynamically and all run correctly from the static pages is indeed some fiddling--but well worth it by me.Some search engines are doing better with URLs with fixed parameters and non-HTML extensions--but I've never seen them rank as high as HTML or HTM extension pages without parameters. And it stands to reason that no search engine ever wants to list a page with a variable parameter such as a Cart ID--nor would I think one would want them to--lead users to a page with someone else's Cart ID. It's extremely important to distinguish between that kind of parameter (variable for each user) and fixed parameters--such as passing a SKU or Category name, and I think spiders now do the best they can to distinguish.I don't run my own servers, and am not in a position to have HTML extension pages process WebDNA.I haven't studied the other solutions suggested in this thread, and am not arguing against them; I'm just adding my solution into the information mix.VelmaAt 02:17 PM 5/8/2003, you wrote:> >Can WebDNA be used to clean-up URLs like the examples below, or does this> >have to be done using the webserver (Apache, WebSTAR, IIS, etc.)?>>You can use the mod-write (or is it mod-rewrite?) module on Apache to >clean up urls. There may be something for other servers, too. I dunno.>> >> >I guess question marks and name=value pairs don't work well with some search> >engines because I've seen more and more sites taking this approach.> >>>We've talked about this a lot before here. You can use cookies to carry >the query string info or use custom error pages to display pages. Both >techniques work. Maybe one is more suitable to your stuff than the other.>>Some say the query string info doesn't affect se results. It did at one >time, but maybe some se's have overcome that. Google and ATW will spider >sites with query strings in the url, but that isn't always a good thing. I >think it comes down to your personal pref.>>Glenn----------------------------------------Velma KahnGlory Day Software Company200 Tanager Ln NW, Floyd, Virginia 24091, U.S.A.phone: 540-745-6469 * fax: 651-321-4884email: vkahn@glorydaysoftware.comhttp://www.glorydaysoftware.comhttp://www.communitymade.comhttp://www.floydcrafts.com-------------------------------------------------------------This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to the mailing list .To unsubscribe, E-mail to: To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/ Associated Messages, from the most recent to the oldest:

Re: Cleaner URLs (Velma Kahn 2003)
Re: Cleaner URLs (Alain Russell 2003)
Re: Cleaner URLs (Michael Davis 2003)
Re: Cleaner URLs (Alain Russell 2003)
Re: Cleaner URLs (Clint Davis 2003)
Re: Cleaner URLs (Alain Russell 2003)
Re: Cleaner URLs (Glenn Busbin 2003)
Cleaner URLs (Clint Davis 2003)

What I do--probably most suitable for sites with less than thousands of items, but the process could always run in the middle of the night for a big store--is write all my product, category, and usually information pages to static files without parameters passed, using a WebDNA process with INCLUDE and WRITEFILE (see for example my stores at http://store.ic.org and http://www.communitymade.com). It gives me very clean URLs with HTML extensions, and meaningful names, all of which is great for the search engines. I store my cart ID in a cookie, so I never pass it from page to page. I run my cart, searchresults, checkout pages dynamically--don't want the search engines to find those anyway.Getting this working so it will all run correctly dynamically and all run correctly from the static pages is indeed some fiddling--but well worth it by me.Some search engines are doing better with URLs with fixed parameters and non-HTML extensions--but I've never seen them rank as high as HTML or HTM extension pages without parameters. And it stands to reason that no search engine ever wants to list a page with a variable parameter such as a Cart ID--nor would I think one would want them to--lead users to a page with someone else's Cart ID. It's extremely important to distinguish between that kind of parameter (variable for each user) and fixed parameters--such as passing a SKU or Category name, and I think spiders now do the best they can to distinguish.I don't run my own servers, and am not in a position to have HTML extension pages process WebDNA.I haven't studied the other solutions suggested in this thread, and am not arguing against them; I'm just adding my solution into the information mix.VelmaAt 02:17 PM 5/8/2003, you wrote:> >Can WebDNA be used to clean-up URLs like the examples below, or does this> >have to be done using the webserver (Apache, WebSTAR, IIS, etc.)?>>You can use the mod-write (or is it mod-rewrite?) module on Apache to >clean up urls. There may be something for other servers, too. I dunno.>> >> >I guess question marks and name=value pairs don't work well with some search> >engines because I've seen more and more sites taking this approach.> >>>We've talked about this a lot before here. You can use cookies to carry >the query string info or use custom error pages to display pages. Both >techniques work. Maybe one is more suitable to your stuff than the other.>>Some say the query string info doesn't affect se results. It did at one >time, but maybe some se's have overcome that. Google and ATW will spider >sites with query strings in the url, but that isn't always a good thing. I >think it comes down to your personal pref.>>Glenn----------------------------------------Velma KahnGlory Day Software Company200 Tanager Ln NW, Floyd, Virginia 24091, U.S.A.phone: 540-745-6469 * fax: 651-321-4884email: vkahn@glorydaysoftware.comhttp://www.glorydaysoftware.comhttp://www.communitymade.comhttp://www.floydcrafts.com-------------------------------------------------------------This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to the mailing list .To unsubscribe, E-mail to: To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/ Velma Kahn

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Re: Cleaner URLs

2003

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