So, from the previous post I understand that pages like
mypage.asp?id=XYZ are not SE friendly, aren't they?
Please, share your knowledge about this. I have a site with one page
name but different IDs and by these IDs different content comes up.
Will Google or any other SE index these pages?
Wha is the workaround in ASP similar to .htaccess for PHP pages?

vunet.us@gmail.com wrote:

> So, from the previous post I understand that pages like
> mypage.asp?id=XYZ are not SE friendly, aren't they?
> Please, share your knowledge about this. I have a site with one page
> name but different IDs and by these IDs different content comes up.
> Will Google or any other SE index these pages?
> Wha is the workaround in ASP similar to .htaccess for PHP pages?

I don't know how it works with ASP, but with PHP/Apache it is not a very
good idea to design a site with URLs like this:

example.com/index.php?id=XYZ

One reason for that is because you can also type in a page that doesn't
exist like:

example.com/index.php?id=your_site_is_screwed

and the server will display the home page at that URL.

That means instead of sending 404 errors for these non-existant pages, you
will get duplicate URLs for the home page (duplicate content).

In a worst case scenario you can get hundreds of pages indexed that don't
exist, but that display the content of the home page. Say hello to the
supplemental results.

This can easily happen if you delete many pages and the search engines are
still requesting those pages. The site should send a 404 error, but it
sends the home page content instead.

There may be a workaround, but if there is it isn't used very often, and
it's not the only reason why those dynamic URLs are not the best idea.


It's also not a good idea to change URLs if they are already indexed, but if
you can 301 redirect them you might be ok.

vunet.us@gmail.com wrote:

> So, from the previous post I understand that pages like
> mypage.asp?id=XYZ are not SE friendly, aren't they?
> Please, share your knowledge about this. I have a site with one page
> name but different IDs and by these IDs different content comes up.
> Will Google or any other SE index these pages?
> Wha is the workaround in ASP similar to .htaccess for PHP pages?

Using PATH_INFO might , e.g.

mypage.asp/XYZ/some-key-words


There are URL rewriting solutions for IIS though.

--
John Need with SEO? Get started with a SEO report of your site:

--> http://johnbokma.com/websitedesign/seo-expert-.html

On Wed, 20 Sep 2006 22:43:59 +0200, z <news01.web@mailnull.com> wrote:

> I don't know how it works with ASP, but with PHP/Apache it is not a very
> good idea to design a site with URLs like this:
>
> example.com/index.php?id=XYZ
>
> One reason for that is because you can also type in a page that doesn't
> exist like:
>
> example.com/index.php?id=your_site_is_screwed
>
> and the server will display the home page at that URL.

No. You are completely, utterly wrong. What it will display depends on how
the page was coded.

> That means instead of sending 404 errors for these non-existant pages,
> you will get duplicate URLs for the home page (duplicate content).

Only if you have no clue how to code it properly.

> In a worst case scenario you can get hundreds of pages indexed that don't
> exist, but that display the content of the home page. Say hello to the
> supplemental results.

Only if you have no clue how to code it properly.

> This can easily happen if you delete many pages and the search engines
> are
> still requesting those pages. The site should send a 404 error, but it
> sends the home page content instead.

Only if you have no clue how to code it properly. But I feel like I am
repeating myself.

Borek
--
http://www.chembuddy.com
http://www.ph-meter.info
http://www.terapia-kregoslupa.waw.pl

Borek wrote:

> On Wed, 20 Sep 2006 22:43:59 +0200, z <z> wrote:

> Only if you have no clue how to code it properly. But I feel like I am
> repeating myself.

If you know the fix, it would be kind of you to mention what you are
referring to, or even to share the solution. Otherwise it is just
condecending.

Most people do not know how to code it. I've never seen it in PHP tutorials
and it is not obvious. The default in most PHP web sites I've seen is to
show the home page when you type in an incorrect query string.

Borek wrote:

> On Wed, 20 Sep 2006 22:43:59 +0200, z <news01.web@mailnull.com> wrote:
>
>> One reason for that is because you can also type in a page that doesn't
>> exist like:
>>
>> example.com/index.php?id=your_site_is_screwed
>>
>> and the server will display the home page at that URL.
>
> No. You are completely, utterly wrong. What it will display depends on how
> the page was coded.
[...]
> Only if you have no clue how to code it properly.
[...]
> Only if you have no clue how to code it properly.
[...]
> Only if you have no clue how to code it properly. But I feel like I am
> repeating myself.


Even php.net exhibits this behavior with showing the home page for various
query strings.

(although they are rewriting the URLs)

On Thu, 21 Sep 2006 00:37:08 +0200, z <news01.web@mailnull.com> wrote:

>> Only if you have no clue how to code it properly. But I feel like I am
>> repeating myself.
>
> If you know the fix, it would be kind of you to mention what you are
> referring to, or even to share the solution. Otherwise it is just
> condecending.

chembuddy site have no problems with the parameters value - it displays
404 correctly, no matter what you enter. Or at least it did in April,
after site revamping. I did some changes later and have not tested it too
extensively.

Just occured to me that you may mean not

example.com/index.php?id=something

but

example.com/index.php?something

but even then it should be not a problem, as you may analyse url using
$_SERVER variable.

Borek
--
http://www.chembuddy.com
http://www.ph-meter.info
http://www.terapia-kregoslupa.waw.pl

Borek wrote:

> On Thu, 21 Sep 2006 00:37:08 +0200, z <z> wrote:
>
> chembuddy site have no problems with the parameters value - it displays
> 404 correctly, no matter what you enter. Or at least it did in April,
> after site revamping. I did some changes later and have not tested it too
> extensively.
>
> Just occured to me that you may mean not
>
> example.com/index.php?id=something
>
> but
>
> example.com/index.php?something
>
> but even then it should be not a problem, as you may analyse url using
> $_SERVER variable.

Ah yes, you are right. I was just testing it today with ?something. But
there are a couple of other sites I just tested it with that show the home
page for ?id=something. I've worked on a few sites with that problem.

How could you know if a page doesn't exist with the $_SERVER variable? Use
$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'] and then check if that page exists in the
database, else send 404 header?

z wrote:

> Ah yes, you are right. I was just testing it today with ?something. But
> there are a couple of other sites I just tested it with that show the home
> page for ?id=something. I've worked on a few sites with that problem.

Just checking it again. The problem on those sites is more than just
exactly "?id=something", but those problems occured on sites that were
using the dynamic URLs like that. I can't get the URLs out of the Google
cache to check the older ones.

On Thu, 21 Sep 2006 01:37:41 +0200, z <news01.web@mailnull.com> wrote:

>> example.com/index.php?something
>>
>> but even then it should be not a problem, as you may analyse url using
>> $_SERVER variable.
>
> Ah yes, you are right. I was just testing it today with ?something. But
> there are a couple of other sites I just tested it with that show the
> home
> page for ?id=something. I've worked on a few sites with that problem.
>
> How could you know if a page doesn't exist with the $_SERVER variable?
> Use
> $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'] and then check if that page exists in the
> database, else send 404 header?

Details must depend on the internal implementation of your site, but you
are on the right track.

Borek
--
http://www.chembuddy.com
http://www.ph-meter.info
http://www.terapia-kregoslupa.waw.pl

You can use a custom 404 page.

Lets say the you send a visitor to http://your_url/xyz

<%
str_query = Request.ServerVariables("QUERY_STRING")
str_search_string = replace(str_query,"404;" & your_url & ":80/","")
folder_array = split(str_search_string,"/")
no_arrays = ubound(folder_array)
%>

Then folder_array(0) = "xyz"

You send a visitor to http://your_url/xyz/abc

Then folder_array(0) = "xyz"
Then folder_array(1) = "abc"

Obviously you have to put some checking in place that makes sure the
folders are correct, otherwise send a 404 header, so if all the folders
have a similar format, say id_###### and the result doesn't contain
"id_" you return a 404 error

I just love this group.

Endless such comments, but never mentions a solution.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Borek" <m.borkowski@delete.chembuddy.these.com.parts> wrote in message
newsp.tf65yptx26l578@borek...
On Wed, 20 Sep 2006 22:43:59 +0200, z <news01.web@mailnull.com> wrote:

Only if you have no clue how to code it properly. (repeated several times)

Thank you for ASP page.
One question arises though.
If crawlers go to one url such as website.com/page/xyz and then they
are redirected by ASP to website.com/page.asp?id=xyz, would those
crawlers realize there is something fishy?.. and not index the page?

They are not redirected, the url website.com/page/xyz doesn't change,
instead the custom written 404 page creates a page depeneding on the
variables in the url path, e.g. "xyz" just as the the "page.asp?id=xyz"
would do with the variable "id"

vunet.us@gmail.com wrote:
> Thank you for ASP page.
> One question arises though.
> If crawlers go to one url such as website.com/page/xyz and then they
> are redirected by ASP to website.com/page.asp?id=xyz, would those
> crawlers realize there is something fishy?.. and not index the page?
>