To ensure every one of your product pages are indexed, you'll want to create a sitemap.xml page for both Google and Yahoo. Basically, it's an XML version of a text site map, created by manually crawling your own site. You might need to create that text index page yourself first (you could do so by setting up your search engine, then have it return every item in the db).
The sitemap.xml format is very tricky and a pain to put together. We use a free app called gsitecrawler (google that and you can grab it). If you have a thorough, current site map stored on your server, and your pages each have good keyword meta data, you should theoretically get the same SEO benefit as if you had a category index page. Regarding the searchers vs browsers question: The one thing a browsable taxonomy does, that a search engine cannot do, is tell the first-time visitor which products you have. If people don't know what you sell, they won't waste time running dozens of searches to find out. Probably better to at least have your own broad categories to at least hint at the breadth of your inventory (manufacturers, cost, indoor/outdoor, etc). Good luck =] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=38306 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
