Guest Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 As most of you probably already know, search-engines hate database pages. I've installed some of the contributions here like sID killer and HeaderTags which should help. What I'm really looking for is a way for the database to create static versions of the store in some other folder. I've seen this done on other stores, including the last Minivend store I worked on. I'm still learning OSC and browing these forums/contributions. But is there a way to have OSC generate a static copy of the store? I'd hate to reinvent the wheel if it already exists. Since the store sits in /catalog, I could just dump the static .html pages right in to the root directory. And of course, at some point, maybe after the user logs in to the shopping cart, they are moved to the dynamic /catalog area. As far as spiders are concerned though, its all nice and static. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wizardsandwars Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 As most of you probably already know, search-engines hate database pages. False. Quote ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: As of Oct 2006, I'm not as active in this forum as I used to be, but I still work with osC quite a bit. If you have a question about any of my posts here, your best bet is to contact me though either Email or PM in my profile, and I'll be happy to help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 Well, I'm sure it's a debatable point, as with everything else in search engine optimization. I have infact have had database pages show up on Google and AOL before. I've also supplied product feeds to Inktomi, which got database pages to show up on those engines. However, even Googlebot hates digging down through countless levels of database pages. In fact, according to the SEO consultant's I've used in the past, Google has a URL limit of like 48 characters. I have it in from various reputable sources (two of which we pay $40,000 a month to for e-marketing our commerce sites) that static web pages rank higher in search engines than database pages. The index and main category pages should at least be static in order to improve the chances for deeper spidering. Or so I hear. I'm really not trying to debate that point, because frankily only the search engine programmers know for sure, and they aren't giving that information out. But if you have any information on how I can go about getting OSC to generate static pages, that would be great :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rseigel Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 In fact, according to the SEO consultant's I've used in the past, Google has a URL limit of like 48 characters. Also false. :roll: I'm not sure where you're getting your information but it's mostly wrong (or at least years and years out of date). There isn't any practical or sensible way to generate static html pages from OSC. It would require TONS of work that I'd be surprised anyone here would want to bother with or care about for that matter. OSC sites (mine included) are spidered quite nicely by all the major search engines. In other words - what's the point? :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 Yeah, the character limit is way off. I've just been looking in Google and see some urls as long as 240 characters. Maybe it was Inktomi. I'll have to check back in to that, but I definitely remember that one of the major search engines had a limit like that (or at least used too) and we were asked by our search engine consultants to make our database URLs smaller. Of course, my ex-boss made me recode half the store so we could be safe. Hey, I hope you're right, beleive me. The less work I have to do the better. I guess I'll do further research in to the matter to see just how well OSC does in the search engines than my old minivend based stores. So you guys really are getting good results in google? What about the other search engines? Im just trying to learn here. I'm a programmer, not a search engine specialist. At my last job, we had a whole marketing team and hired outside consultants who made us do crazy things like static pages. I'm honest to god not making this stuff up, these are the things we paid companies hundreds of thousands of dollars to tell us. But, our traffic did increase by using them as well as our business (this was www.faucet.com and all of it's sister sites). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wizardsandwars Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 All you need is unique titles and descriptions to be spidered. Index placement is calculated on several factors, among them: Link popularity Keyword or Phrase prominence in title Keyword or phrase prominence in url Keyword or phrase count in content Keyword or phrase count in Title Keyword or phrase count in Alt tags Length of Title Number of words in Content ... and so on. There are lots more things taken into consideration. If you are *really* interested in your index placement, you should invest in "Web Position Gold". This is a great piece of saftware, and will really break down for you what you can improve on to get higher placement. Static web pages are not one of them. Quote ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: As of Oct 2006, I'm not as active in this forum as I used to be, but I still work with osC quite a bit. If you have a question about any of my posts here, your best bet is to contact me though either Email or PM in my profile, and I'll be happy to help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 Yeah, I use WebPosition Gold (although overuse of this can also get your sites penalized). I have also done a lot of keyword research with WordTracker and stuff. So my keywords, title, and meta should all be good. I should have some really good content on the site as well. Speaking of Alt tags... how does OSC handle these? I'd love to populate alt tags with keywords on a product level. Add a new field to products table. That would be a bunch of work though. Are alt tags populated by anything in the /language/ includes? Regarding the static pages thing, I'm looking on a lot of search engine optimization sites, and I'm really getting a mixed answer on this. Which is par for the course when it comes to seo. Not that i'm trying to be argumentitive with you good folks here, but there simply seems to be two schools of thought. I'm not sure I can be so quick to beleive that static pages are useless on a database driven site. As spiderbots become more progressive in terms of dynamic content, I'm sure that static pages will start loosing their importance, but I'm just not sure I think thats the case right now. Here's some subject material: http://spider-food.net/dynamic-page-optimization.html http://www.supportforums.org/article148.html http://www.searchengineguide.com/wi/2002/1112_wi1.html http://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday...cle.php/2161081 The mod_rewrite fix looks interesting, and might be easier to impliment with OSC. Not easy, just easier ;) I think you guys might want to reconsider your position on this topic however. I can provide dozens of links from various online search engine sources that recommend the use of static pages to help spiders (including google) access deeper database pages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loxly Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 I wouldn't say static pages are useless, but they aren't the end all answer either. Content is actually one of the most important factors in search engine ranking, and backlinks. BUT the content has to be relative to your meta tags AND the backlinks have to be from related content sites. So for a site selling pet supplies 10 links from other pet related sites, like breeders and informational sites that use a lot of the same meta tags and words your site uses are much more effective than 1000 links on sites about landscaping. Static pages are more useful if they contain information not contained in your catalog. For example, on a photo gallery site, tips on framing or frame making and hints to take great photos of your own. One tip I have always been told to do and have been lax in because I enjoy high ranking on most of my sites, is to create one page for your sites that lists all of your other sites. And one last recommendation is a Site Map. d Quote [no external urls in signatures please, kthanks] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 20, 2003 Share Posted April 20, 2003 As most of you probably already know, search-engines hate database pages. I've installed some of the contributions here like sID killer and HeaderTags which should help. If you haven't installed allprods [with or without the bot readfile code - do a search under my name and it will show up in one or two threads] then you haven't prepared your site for indexing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mazza Posted April 20, 2003 Share Posted April 20, 2003 Keyword or phrase count in content Little addition : with semantic markup (especially headers and strong) Quote "Use no way as way, have no limitation as limitation." - Bruce Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 21, 2003 Share Posted April 21, 2003 AllProds looks interesting, and should definitely help deeper spidering. My only concern is that a spider might see through that page and consider it spamming or something. But it's worth a shot. Yes, a site-map, thats a good idea as well. I dont suppose there is a contribution to generate that? Be nice to link some content pages there, and then a list of categories/subcategories maybe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcgyver7923 Posted April 21, 2003 Share Posted April 21, 2003 Try this to see how google will spider your site: http://www.gritechnologies.com/tools/spider.go Quote -Richard --------------------------------------------------- Where would I be without the Forums?!?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 21, 2003 Share Posted April 21, 2003 Wow, very nice link :) Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcgyver7923 Posted April 21, 2003 Share Posted April 21, 2003 Sure thing!!! I'm just passing it along :D Hope it helps!!! Quote -Richard --------------------------------------------------- Where would I be without the Forums?!?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbelau Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 Sure thing!!! I'm just passing it along :D Hope it helps!!! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I've been using Poodle to check all my clients' sites..works fabulously! :thumbsup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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