Don't use a 404 to signal that a URL has changed: use a 301 "Moved Permanently". http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html#sec10.3.2
> -----Original Message----- > From: Bert Van Kets [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Sunday, 14 April 2002 08:57 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Search Engine Optimization and Cocoon (long!) > > > If you get visits from search engines to those pages it would > be crazy to > get rid of those links. I would however install the new > pages without the > query string and try to get as high as possible with as many SE's as > possible. Once those new links do their work, you have an > alternative and > you can get rid of the old links if you want. > Most major SE's don't like different links to the same page, so it is > actually an advantage of having only one good link to a page. > Then again, > it's only a disadvantage if you get caught, so you can keep > the old link > with some spam risk involved. > > Robots will revisit your site after a certain time. Most > have an interval > of about 1 month. If it gets a 404 page not found it will > erase that page > from the index. That will get rid of the old links > automatically. You can > get rid of them manually by resubmitting them, but that's a lot of > work. If they find the new links, they will index the pages. > If some > pages are in a search engine, it will get out and get the new pages > automatically. > > Keeping track of the logs is *always* a good idea! > > BTW: Don't confuse Search Engines with directories. Search > Engines use a > robot to index the content of your site. Directories like > Yahoo en Open > Directory (dmoz.com) have humans look at the site and quote > it. A clear, > good content is all you can do for these guys. > > Bert > > At 06:13 13/04/2002 -0400, you wrote: > >Bert, > > > >Thanks for the great read! > > > >>Part 7: other things you should know > >>----------------------------------------------------- > >>A. Querystrings (everything behind a ? in the URL) > >>Most major search engines hate querystrings. They assume > that the query > >>strings are used for database access and dynamic page > generation. This > >>can give them a "black hole" where they eventually index a complete > >>database. Altavista clearly states that they will index a > page with > >>querystrings, but won't follow any links. Google is one of > the first to > >>start indexing pages with querystrings. They are very > coutious and will > >>go only a certain levels. > > > >Now that we can effectively rewrite page URLs without query > strings using > >C2, do you think it's simply a matter of resubmitting to > search engines to > >remove any existing search engine links to the "old" pages? In the > >meantime, I suppose we could leave up a pipeline up, that > maps the old > >URLs with query strings to the new URL without query strings > (and monitor > >logs to determine when/if to delete them down the road.) > > > >Would that be your approach for updating old sites? > > > >Diana > > > > > >--------------------------------------------------------------------- > >To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >For additional commands, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
