6 replies to this topic

[chriswitt]

Ok so heres the situation...

I'm redesigning a real estate site for the local remax office.

We have a neighborhoods section of the site that lists info on schools, landmarks, churches, and demographics.

This section only included 10 or so neighborhoods before I was hired to redesign the site, but now we're working with 26 neighborhoods.

As of right now we have only 4 dynamic pages, .../neighborhoods/churches.asp, .../neighborhoods/demographics.asp, .../neighborhoods/landmarks.asp, and .../neighborhoods/schools.asp

We don't use a database however, there is just a couple include directories and a "select case"...

It works like this:
if we go to churches.asp?neighbordhood=00

the select case code will <!--#include virtual="includes/churches/00.html"--> in the area of the page where the dynamic content shows up.

So each dynamic page only has 1 parameter and it's only 2 characters long... They didn't have an issue getting the pages indexed before, but to be honest the whole setup of the neighborhoods section was crap and they probably didn't want anyone to look at it anyway. Now my boss wants to make sure they get crawled by google for sure, and maybe yahoo.

The question is whats my best course of action?

We've entertained the idea of a sitemap, but we already have one for the rest of the site and we would need to add an aditional 104 links to cover the 26 neighborhoods, and 4 categories. Sounds like way too many links to be crawled on one page and I think a multiple page sitemap is out of the question.

So now we're looking into possibly changing all of the neighborhoods pages to static pages... (pulls out hair)

Or using a rewrite mod or some other sneaky coding to make our dynamic pages have the feel of a static page to the spiders.

I've looked into rewrite mods and attempted to understand all the workarounds on many forums, but most of the workarounds refer to database issues. Honestly it all just seems like too much work when I'm nearly sure the pages will get indexed the next time google crawls the site. But you gotta keep the boss happy right?

I suppose I could always just surf to each of the 104 dynamic pages... view source, ctrl+a, ctrl+x, ctrl+v them to jedit and save a new asp page.

I guess I know my options, I'm really just looking for a third opinion on the situation. Or the ever illusive "quick and easy" fix.

[Jill]

What's the best course of action for what? Those aren't dynamic pages, they're simply server side includes. No problem with everything getting indexed. You're not even using dynamic looking urls with parameters from what you've shown there. Parameters are equals signs and ampersands and question marks.

[chriswitt]

What's the best course of action for what? Those aren't dynamic pages, they're simply server side includes. No problem with everything getting indexed. You're not even using dynamic looking urls with parameters from what you've shown there. Parameters are equals signs and ampersands and question marks.

I know theres no problem with the indexing... I'm just trying to figure out how to make the boss happy. He doesn't want ? in the url.

../neighborhoods/churches.asp?neighborhood=00
../neighborhoods/churches.asp?neighborhood=01
../neighborhoods/churches.asp?neighborhood=02
../neighborhoods/churches.asp?neighborhood=03
../neighborhoods/churches.asp?neighborhood=04
../neighborhoods/schools.asp?neighborhood=00
../neighborhoods/schools.asp?neighborhood=01
../neighborhoods/demographics.asp?neighborhood=02
../neighborhoods/demographics.asp?neighborhood=03

Are these not dynamic pages? I thought they were, I'm really just a graphics guy. I just know how to read code, and I'm a master of copy & paste.
I wasn't orriginally hired to even do the coding or SEO, I just kinda got stuck with it cause I cut the graphics so fast that my boss can't keep up. (he's a busy guy)

[torka]

Why does the boss not want question marks in the URLs?

If he's thinking those are going to prevent the SEs from indexing the pages, he can rest easy. A single question mark in the URL will not cause even the slightest hiccup at any of the major SEs. Not at all. Not even two or three question marks can stay them from their appointed indexing rounds.

If that's his concern, by setting you off on this quest to eliminate them, he's creating additional work for no good reason. Taking up time that could better be spent on more productive pursuits. Wasting valuable company resources on a task that will bring no tangible (or intangible) benefits. (Insert whatever argument will work to convince him to let it go and move on.)

If indexing not his concern, what's the specific issue he has with question marks in the URLs?

--Torka

[Jill]

He doesn't want ? in the url.

?????

Yes, those ones you've pasted would be considered dynamic-looking URLs. But yeah, they're not a problem.

If the boss is really against them, then do a mod_rewrite (or an ISAPI_rewrite for IIS server). Not sure what the rest of your post is about, however, if this is the actual question.

[Randy]

I'm just trying to figure out how to make the boss happy. He doesn't want ? in the url.

Your boss is misinformed if he thinks the ? is going to make one iota of difference. It won't. Those page addresses will be indexed just fine if you provide links to them.

[chrishirst]

Dead easy with a ASP smart 404 page absolutely no need for components at all and certainly no requirement for a huge list of;

if ... then
do this
elseif ... then
do this
elseif ... then
do this
else
do something else
end if

statements