Mark, thanks for the tips!

> 2. Specify a canonical url for the old pages.

Not following you there. Care to explain?

On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 7:23 AM, Mark <[email protected]> wrote:
> The problem is that Google can't tell what is important and what isn't
> because the older content has just as many if not more links pointing
> to it than the new stuff.  Just getting rid of the old content is
> going to break links on the web which may or may not be a bad thing.
> Here are a few things that might help:
>
> 1. put no index on the pages that you don't want to see in the search
> results any more
> <meta name="robots" content="noindex" />
>
> 2. Specify a canonical url for the old pages.  This would suggest that
> Google use the new page instead of the old ones in the results.
>
> 3. More links to current documentation. If you have a website that is
> pointing at older documentation, updating the links (where
> appropriate) would help.
>
> 4. A few deeper links from front page.  For example, if
> tapestry.apache.org had a link to
> http://tapestry.apache.org/current/tapestry-core/ref/ it would help
> boost the current component reference in the search results.
>
> Mark
>
>
> On Sun, May 29, 2011 at 1:11 AM, Howard Lewis Ship <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> Maybe we should just replace the old web sites with .htaccess files
>> that redirect back to the main page, http://tapestry.apache.org/
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 8:44 PM, Kalle Korhonen
>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>> > Ah, yes I see. Agree on all you said, and we definitely want to get
>> > that custom search into the template as well. At least to me it seems
>> > that the Maven based documentation for 5.x get most of the hits. I
>> > don't think we need to worry about 3.x documentation too much. I'm
>> > afraid that bulk edit with specific content links may not work very
>> > well as the documentation structure has changed. Simply adding the
>> > same link to the (root of) latest documentation on every existing page
>> > might increase the visibility of the wiki-based documentation in the
>> > search rankings though. I'm not a PMC member, but personally, I'd just
>> > give you commit rights to make this simpler. Any PMC member want to
>> > propose Bob as committer?
>> >
>> > Kalle
>> >
>> >
>> > On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 4:25 AM, Bob Harner <[email protected]> wrote:
>> >> Well, I did create http://tapestry.apache.org/search.html a few months
>> >> back, and it works much better than the general Google search. We
>> >> still need to figure out how to integrate it or something like it into
>> >> the site. That involves working with the template that I don't have
>> >> write-access to.
>> >>
>> >> Anyway, most people will still tend to use the standard Google search.
>> >>
>> >> On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 10:43 PM, Kalle Korhonen
>> >> <[email protected]> wrote:
>> >>> Agree, I'll help. I think one decent solution is a Google Custom
>> >>> Search. There was a previous effort underway, but I don't know what
>> >>> happened to it. If we could just properly search our own
>> >>> documentation, that would already be a huge improvement.
>> >>>
>> >>> Kalle
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 6:52 PM, Bob Harner <[email protected]> wrote:
>> >>>> Most of the time when I use Google to search for Tapestry topics, the
>> >>>> results are truly bad, because they are obscured by outdated
>> >>>> documentation for Tapestry 4 and older versions of Tapestry 5. This
>> >>>> makes Tapestry documentation seem much worse than it really is. (I
>> >>>> happen to think the newer stuff is pretty good.)
>> >>>>
>> >>>> The root problem is that Tapestry's long history of documentation
>> >>>> versions makes it hard for Google to tell which version is the best.
>> >>>> For example, searching for "tapestry component parameters" (without
>> >>>> quotes) results in:
>> >>>>
>> >>>> 1) http://tapestry.apache.org/tapestry5/guide/parameters.html
>> >>>> 2) http://tapestry.apache.org/tapestry4/UsersGuide/components.html
>> >>>> 3) http://tapestry.apache.org/tapestry5.1/guide/coercion.html
>> >>>> 4) 
>> >>>> http://tapestry.formos.com/nightly/tapestry5/tapestry-component-report/
>> >>>>
>> >>>> ...and hundreds of other links that are relevant but sub-optimal.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> The true best page  is really
>> >>>> http://tapestry.apache.org/component-parameters.html -- but I couldn't
>> >>>> find that page in any of the top 200 results.  And other search terms
>> >>>> are similarly disappointing.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> What's the solution? I propose doing the following:
>> >>>>
>> >>>> 1) Bulk edit or republish old 3.x and 4.x documentation pages to add a
>> >>>> prominent banner added at the top pointing to the corresponding page
>> >>>> in the newest documentation. The old content would remain in the
>> >>>> pages.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> 2) Bulk edit or republish old 5.x documentation with all text REMOVED
>> >>>> and a prominent banner added at the top pointing to the corresponding
>> >>>> page in the newest documentation.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> 3) Finding a way to tell Google what older pages are "archived" and
>> >>>> "low priority" and what new ones are "high priority". I guess a
>> >>>> Sitemap 
>> >>>> (http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=183668)
>> >>>> can do that.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> I'm willing to work on these, though ultimately I'll need a
>> >>>> committer's assistance for #1 and #2.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> What do you all think? Any other ideas?
>> >>>>
>> >>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>
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>> >>>
>> >>
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>> >>
>> >
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>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Howard M. Lewis Ship
>>
>> Creator of Apache Tapestry
>>
>> The source for Tapestry training, mentoring and support. Contact me to
>> learn how I can get you up and productive in Tapestry fast!
>>
>> (971) 678-5210
>> http://howardlewisship.com
>>
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