20 replies to this topic

[Matt B]

If possible you'll want to change your query string to something other than "ID=" BrianR.  I'm not sure anybody has been able to confirm it yet, but I've read here and several other places that googlebot may be thinking anything with "ID" or "id" is a Session ID and therefore won't index the pages correctly.

I wouldn't worry about that simple of a query string. From my experience "ID=" has very little bearing on indexing issues. You can name it whatever you like, but a sessionID is very different and unmistakable for search engine bots to recognize.

[BrianR]

Thanks for all your help and advice on this topic - I appreciate it.

BrianR

[mopacfan]

My own site (see signature) is an asp site using mssql for the backend. I am in the process of working on the fourth major revision since the site went live three years ago. My most recent change was to add fields to the database for page title, description and keywords. Previously, every page in the site had the exact same title because of the include file='head' code. In my revised code, it is a bit more sophisticated:

<title>
<%
If xPageTitle <> "" Then
Response.Write xPageTitle & " - Project Responder"
else
Response.Write "Project Responder - The Ultimate Volunteer Ford Superduty 4x4"
end if
%>
</title>
<META NAME="revisit-after" CONTENT="5 days">
<meta http-equiv="window-target" content="_top">
<%
if xMetadescription <> "" then
	Response.Write "<meta name='description' content='" & xMetadescription & "'>"
else
	Response.Write "<meta name='description' content='Project Responder ...'>"
end if
if xMetakeywords <> "" then
	Response.Write "<meta name='keywords' content='" & xMetakeywords & "'>"
else
	Response.Write "<meta name='keywords' content='Ford,...,responder'>"
end if
%>

Now, for the pages where I've added content to the database for these fields, the pages are significantly more optimized and more likely to be returned in the search engines.

Hope this helps

[Ranger]

I also want to say thanks to everyone who commented - we're going to use Movable Type this time around. Main decision came down to the massive support community for MT - its just bigger than the others right now. All seem to have their best/worst parts, none seem to be that far off the others.

I'll let you know in a few weeks how it turns out.

[Ranger]

Oh, one more quick note:

Seems that MT is *free* for a 30 day trial. Confusing license, had I have known that up front I'm sure I'd have been faster to just try the bloomin' thing out of the gate! Just trying to figure out know if I know enough to install it myself...

Thanks again, all

[BrianR]

mopacfan

thanks for that code - now I better understand how to personalise the all-important metatags to each dynamic page

BrianR