10 replies to this topic

[bjandrews]

I was just approached by a friend about SEO for a site where the home page URL reads http://www.websitename.com/isap/isapi.dll . I’ve never touched an ISAPI site before. Does anyone know if there are any particular quirks in SEO’ing an ISAPI site?

[Jill]

Welcome BJandrews!

Never heard of it. It sounds odd that there would be a file with a .dll extension in the URL, however. Aren't .dll files system files? Are you sure that's the actual URL of the site?

Jill

[websage]

ISAPI was Microsoft's answer to CGI's limitations. It evolved over the years into ASP and now ASP.NET. I do not see how and why somebody will direct traffict to the ISAPI. You might want to check for more information.

[bjandrews]

Jill & WebSage, thanks for responding.
http://www.websitename.com/isap/isapi.dll is the URL displayed when you enter the .com address. You never see the .dll extention after that point. If you leave the home page and return the URL is www.website.com/page.home/sessiion_id.<random string> The URLs for all subsequent pages end the same way i.e. /page.<whatever>/session_id Unfortunately the web developer has no desire to tell me why he coded the site this way, even when I said “pretty please”. I know I have an obstacle dealing with session ids, but wondering if the .dll page going to give me fits as well.

[Jill]

The search engines don't do well with session id's so that's probably the major problem. If they can get rid of those somehow, it's possible the site may be indexable.

And yes, the .dll page may also be a problem. Generally the extension doesn't matter, but I would be concerned about .dll.

Still, I'm only guessing. Maybe others here have dealt directly with this sort of thing and can add something more intelligent!

Jill

[donaldcroswell]

Just as a casual browser, I wouldn't want to see a .dll file in my Address box. Regardless of whether or not it did anything or not. There are too many people out there trying to get files on my computer, or take information from my computer so I would probably avoid any pages that I didn't recognise the extensions. The same as if I didn't see the little lock on the browser when I was entering my credit card details on a secure server (https). Just used to certain checks. Even if they can be 'faked'. 'Something different' starts ringing alarm bells for me.
Also, if I was a paid SEO expert for a site, I would expect to know exactly what it did. Everything. There would be no 'secret web functions' affiliated with my company without me knowing about it. Not an SEO expert but assume that to be effective at your job you need to know the purpose of the site and how the informatioin is retrieved.....asp,cold fusion,jsp. Can't maximise the search engines spidering the site if you don't know how it works.
Good luck

Edited by donaldcroswell, 07 August 2003 - 08:49 PM.

[Jill]

Here's a funny coincidence for you. I was doing a site review today for a client and while browsing through their site, I saw one of those .dll urls! It was there for a second, and then it redirects to a "normal" static looking page. I really don't know what it did or how it worked, but was interesting to see due to this conversation. I probably wouldn't have even noticed it had we not been talking about it.

Another funny thing was on this same site, they were using the freefind.com search box that we were discussing in another thread.

Isn't it weird how once you hear about something, suddenly you start seeing it everywhere?

I bet if you keep your eyes open, you might notice that isapi .dll stuff on more sites than you realize ever had them.

Jill

[qwerty]

If you're interested in what ISAPI rewrite is about, there's some information here and on a page at the SEO Consultants site.

Basically (and I got this from the pages listed above) it's an IIS equivalent of mod_rewrite.

[Jill]

Thanks, Bob! That explains it nicely. Good article on seo consultants.

So, it appears that the isapi rewrite is a GOOD thing for seo, not a bad one at all.

Jill

[bjandrews]

Thank you all for your contributions to this line. This has been a tremendous help!

[schecky]

The google SERP below indicates there may not be a problem getting the .dll extension indexed.

http://www.google.ca...le Search&meta=