search engine safe URLs

Hello all, I have an app that calls pages dynamically via switching statements and url variables similar to early fusebox applications. Something like: http://www.mysite.com/index.cfm?page=productSummary&catID=12 however, most search engines will only index the index.cfm page sine the remainder of the url is "dynamic". I remember seeing some good way around thing a while back but seem to have lost track of those resources. Any suggestions? Thanks everyone, -chris.alvarado [ application developer ] 4 Guys Interactive, Inc. 281.807.4344 x1716

>however, most search engines will only index the index.cfm page sine the >remainder of the url is "dynamic". I wonder how much that is still true. Admittedly, I do mostly intranet-based work, but I recently built a site for my wife's real estate business and had no problems with URLs for a Fusebox 3.0 app. >I remember seeing some good way around thing a while back but seem to >have lost track of those resources. Here is a HOWTO on the subject: http://www.cfhub.com/contributions/SES/ Here is a product that does it for you automagically: http://www.cfdev.com/products/productdetail.cfm/id/1023

> http://www.mysite.com/index.cfm?page=productSummary&catID=12 > > however, most search engines will only index the index.cfm page sine the > remainder of the url is "dynamic". This seems to be a commonly voiced fear but searching on various search engines simply doesn't seem to back this up and I suspect that modern search engines *do* use the query string parameters just fine...

It doesnt take much searching on google or yahoo to see that dynamic pages DO get indexed. I read somewhere recently that its not an issue of dynamic pages being indexed, however, the issue is that the search engines will not spider pages from a dynamic url. This is not something that i have been able to prove incorrect.  Has anyone seen any evidence that supports or contradicts this theory?  I am just curious what other developers have seen. sim On Tue, 2004-07-06 at 21:35, Sean Corfield wrote: ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

I have. When I redid the HoF site in SES urls, the amount of search agents hitting the site went waaaay up and the amount of indexed pages did as well. My SES url article should be posted to the front of HoF and FA by morning. It doesnt take much searching on google or yahoo to see that dynamic pages DO get indexed. I read somewhere recently that its not an issue of dynamic pages being indexed, however, the issue is that the search engines will not spider pages from a dynamic url. This is not something that i have been able to prove incorrect.  Has anyone seen any evidence that supports or contradicts this theory?  I am just curious what other developers have seen. sim On Tue, 2004-07-06 at 21:35, Sean Corfield wrote: ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

I can also attest to this. When the Farcry website (http://farcry.daemon.com.au) started using my Friendly URL Servlet they noticed a huge increase in both search bot spidering and a much improved ranking in google for several search terms. The search engines all seem to be quite happy to put dynamic content in their indexes, but pages with a URL parameter seem to get a lower ranking than equivalent ones without. All of this is subjective/anecdotal and I've never seen any absolute metrics or proof of how significant the effect is, other than people telling me that the FU Servlet has had a big impact on their search engine placement. Whether that's wishful thinking on their part, or a result of a combination of factors including SES URLs I don't know. Spike -------------------------------------------- Stephen Milligan Code poet for hire http://www.spike.org.uk Do you cfeclipse? http://cfeclipse.tigris.org ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- I have to agree. I've never had issues w/ search engines indexing my dynamic sites. The only real use I've seen for shorter URLs is for simplicity's sake. For example, at cflib.org we allow for www.cflib.org/udf.cfm/UDFNAME. That way if you know the name you can quickly get to a UDF.

Just finished my article. Enjoy http://www.fusionauthority.com/Article1.cfm/ArticleID=4226

>Just finished my article. Enjoy >http://www.fusionauthority.com/Article1.cfm/ArticleID=4226 Great article Michael.  I tried to implement the code you posted, and found one thing people should be aware of. The use of a colon in a URL may not be allowed if you're using Microsoft IIS.  It seems that Microsoft considers the colon a special character.   For more info, see: http://forums.devshed.com/t86108/s.html

thats why u stick your dynamic content in your meta tags been that way 4 yrs now