As the statistics graphs I just hacked out show, the London site now has an amazing 1,800 nodes on it. So how come we hardly show up on Google?
As far as I can tell, it seems to be because our URLs always contain '?', which Google seems to think is shorthand for "don't take this seriously because it's just generated output".
The solution, it would seem, would be to have URLs something like "http://example.com/page/Some_Pub". This could be, perhaps, configurable behaviour, which would make the transition from old-style URLs less painful (i.e. not forcing it on the users when they upgrade). The logical next step would be to have a script doing "301 Permanent Redirect"s - much as what you get if you go to Grubstreet's old URL - to the new page name.
I shall be attempting to hack this into the forthcoming version, unless I hear a good objection....
Earle.
On Mon 19 Apr 2004, Earle Martin openguides@downlode.org wrote:
As the statistics graphs I just hacked out show, the London site now has an amazing 1,800 nodes on it. So how come we hardly show up on Google?
As far as I can tell, it seems to be because our URLs always contain '?', which Google seems to think is shorthand for "don't take this seriously because it's just generated output".
I don't think so. Google *adores* the london.crafts wiki.
We had this conversation about a year ago, if I remember right.
Kake
On Mon, Apr 19, 2004 at 04:48:29PM +0100, Kate L Pugh wrote:
As far as I can tell, it seems to be because our URLs always contain '?', which Google seems to think is shorthand for "don't take this seriously because it's just generated output".
I don't think so. Google *adores* the london.crafts wiki.
Odd. (See following.)
We had this conversation about a year ago, if I remember right.
Yes, we did. However, since then we seem to have dropped off the face of the Google earth. Even a london.pm.org raw XML version of a page about the Windsor Castle pub shows up early on in a Google query of '"Windsor Castle" Campden', whilst our page (http://london.openguides.org/index.cgi?Windsor_Castle%2C_W8_7AR) is a million miles down on results page 16. A search for 'Open Guide' brings up the Glasgow guide as top hit, and even our competitors World66 are higher up(!).
What's going on?
On Mon 19 Apr 2004, Earle Martin openguides@downlode.org wrote:
Yes, we did. However, since then we seem to have dropped off the face of the Google earth. [...] What's going on?
Post to (void) and see if Yahoo! Simon has any ideas? What does Yahoo! think of us, anyway?
Kake
Earle Martin wrote:
As the statistics graphs I just hacked out show, the London site now has an amazing 1,800 nodes on it. So how come we hardly show up on Google?
As far as I can tell, it seems to be because our URLs always contain '?', which Google seems to think is shorthand for "don't take this seriously because it's just generated output".
I shall be attempting to hack this into the forthcoming version, unless I hear a good objection....
How about doing it just in Apache and the templates as a quick hack? mod_rewrite is your friend.
openguides-dev@lists.openguides.org
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David Cantrell -
Earle Martin -
Kate L Pugh