Consistent URLs

GateKeeper · June 13th, 2006, 05:56 AM

The URLs generated from the "Recent Ads" links are not consistent and can lead to search engines flagging both URLs as "duplicates". The "All Ads", "Last 7 Day", "Last Day", and "Last 14 Day" queries produce Thumbnail and Text Links that point to exactly the same page yet both have different URLs. From my understanding this does not bode well for search engines. Perhaps the next release could take a shot at making these links the same to help improve SERPs for these pages.

I'd also like to see a little effort put into addressing alt tags and text links in the "Recent Ads" section. Currently the only link out of the Recent Ads section is from the image, the title could easily have a link and would be favorable to search engines (of course they should be the same, preferably single variable URLs, i.e. ...showproduct.php?product=x and leave off any unecessary variables for category, etc). The alt tag would do well to reflect the title of the ad and not the name of the file, too.

To round off this list of URL conistency checks, the "Showcat.php" script yields links to the product pages with a two variable link, "Product" and "Cat", e.g. http://www.timesharegateway.com/auct...ct=20&cat=3221.
If the CAT variable is not necessary (which it appears isn't), it should be removed in order for this link to also be consistent with the rest of the system, only calling the showproduct.php script with a single, "Product" variable. Since "Product" is a unique number to the system, and not dependent on the category, it makes the "Category" variable redundant and, again, contrary to the search engine's desire to see a single URL for the same content.

Thank you.

Michael P · June 13th, 2006, 06:39 AM

URLs are different because of how you get to a page and it effects how subsequent pages can be accessed; for example, going into the LAST 7 DAYS link will allow you to select NEXT and PREVIOUS links that traverse the last 7 days worth of ads as opposed to the ads within the same category that you are viewing.

GateKeeper · June 13th, 2006, 09:24 AM

It's not the query results I'm talking about. The links that call up the queries are fine, it's the product links that these queries produce that are inconsistent. The links I'm talking about are the links to the actual ads that are displayed in the query, one thumbnail, one text link. Clicking on them yield a single Ad. Unless what you're suggesting is that this then sets the course for all subsequent clicks even when viewing these ads, and that the next and prev links within the showproduct.php scrip are controlled by the category that is passed? If that were the case then why is the Thumbnail link different then the text link for the same query? One passes a category, the other passes "All", but they both only show one ad.

Chuck S · June 13th, 2006, 10:44 AM

If you use explicit examples where you mean then it might be easier to follow you here but url's are not exact anywhere. The url's are formatted as Michael states for specific things.

Example here is showcat and the links I show are the same on a thumbnail as the link to the actual ad

http://www.reeftalk.com/classifieds/showcat.php?cat=2

GateKeeper · June 13th, 2006, 10:49 AM

The links for Prev/Next on the showproduct.php pages do not seem to require a cat variable in the URL. I tested this using two ads for the same category, both with Photos. The links to showproduct.php script from the "Recent Ads" display, only have the showproduct.php?product=xxx as the URL, no Cat mentioned. The Prev/Next links on these products also only have the product variable. The Recent Ads display uses the link showproduct.php?product=xxx and the first ad to show has a "Show Previous Ad" link with a similar URL. If you click on either of the links from the "Last 7 Days" query, the links are showproduct.php?product=xxx&cat=yyy (for the thumbnail), and showproduct.php?product=xxx&cat=All (for the text link). Following either link takes you to an AD (showproduct.php) page and the Prev/Next links only seem to use the product variable, and only show ads within that immediate category. If the cat variable is required for some reason for the AD links in the query results, they should be consistent, i.e. Cat="catid" or Cat="All", but not both, and if the cat variable isn't required to dispaly an AD ever, then the CAT variable should be removed from the showproduct.php URLs in the query results.
Thank you.

Chuck S · June 13th, 2006, 11:00 AM

There is no need for links to showproduct.php to have a cat variable in there when just viewing the page. Now however as Michael noted links like on the last7 last14 all etc must pass this variable.

Basically it depends where you are links are going to be different depending on the sequence of what your clicking and trying to pass to the script.

GateKeeper · June 13th, 2006, 11:06 AM

Why have two different URLs then to the same ad page from one query results page? One of my points is that if you need to pass the category variable, then pass it consistently from the same query results page. For example, on "Last 7 Day" query results page, the thumbnail currently passes a specific catid, but the text link passes "all". If this is intended to produce different results in the showproduct script, wouldn't that be confusing for the user?
No matter how I try to come into the showproduct.php script, the prev/next only seem to show ads for the immediate category. If this is the case consistently across the system then passing the category to the showproduct script seems unnecessary. I'm doing my best to understant here.
Thank you.

GateKeeper · June 13th, 2006, 11:09 AM

Chuck,
Can I call you? A few minutes on the phone should allow me to demonstrate my point.
Thank you.

GateKeeper · June 13th, 2006, 11:13 AM

We're saying the same thing, but not seeing it the same way.

Quote:

There is no need for links to showproduct.php to have a cat variable in there when just viewing the page. Now however as Michael noted links like on the last7 last14 all etc must pass this variable.

I agree. The query string for Past 7 Days must contain the variables to make the query work. The links that are displayed on the query results page, however, only ever need the product id, not the category, so why pass it? This is the part I don't undestand (and of course the fact that the same results page passes two different URLs doesn't make sense either).

Thanks.

Chuck S · June 13th, 2006, 11:24 AM

The link must pass last7 to make the query work. The links on the search result page are normal links to the products and do not need to the last7 passed

See the difference here. cat=all is passed as that is the cat that is set when searching based on the search parameters of the timeframe. Now if a cat variable exists the construct_ppurl function passes the variables it is how it works.

Not every link in the program to pass the same thing. At minimum yes a product id must be passed but depending on the starting parameters whether its a search or some other links other variables will be passed.

GateKeeper · June 13th, 2006, 11:33 AM

Quote:

See the difference here. cat=all is passed as that is the cat that is set when searching based on the search parameters of the timeframe. Now if a cat variable exists the construct_ppurl function passes the variables it is how it works.

1. Cat="all" is only passed for the text link in the search results page. The thumbnail link uses a specific catid. Why two different URLs to the same prodcut from the same results page?

2. None of the product pages appear to capitalize on any variable other than the product ID which is necessary to display the product page. If they aren't needed, they're being passed superflously and causing the problem with different URLs for the same product. I understand there may be times it is necessary, but the showproduct.php script doesn't appear to need anything more than product ID to work. Why pass it? It just adds variables to a URL and gives cause for the issue with "duplicate content"?

Thank you.

Chuck S · June 13th, 2006, 11:45 AM

1. Because the thumbnail function grabs the info for that specific photo and the text link to ad uses the already available information.

2. The showproduct script can use other cat variables to setup specific next prev image calls as one example. As stated most url's in the program as passed through the construct_ppurl function in pp-inc.php and thus any variables that exist depending where you click will be passed. In some situations they exist and some situations they do not. We do not hard code every url in the program they are instead dynamically generated.

GateKeeper · June 13th, 2006, 11:48 AM

That's a shame. I think the dynamic concept directly conflicts with SEO objectives, but I also understand that these programs weren't written with that in mind. Thanks for the candid discussion!
-GateKeeper

Chuck S · June 13th, 2006, 11:53 AM

Remember who true SEO is written for HTML pages not PHP scripts. Look at vbSEO for example that program doesnt deal with links directly it tricks and makes dummy HTML pages for spiders to crawl

If anything in our program with the use of spider urls it is proven to very effectively get your site spidered and listed in search engines.

Each to there own I guess.

GateKeeper · June 16th, 2006, 03:35 AM

So I enabled spider friendly URLs on the classifieds site and I ran the "7 Day" query. Oddly enough the thumbnail link is rendered in spider friendly form, the text link to the same ad is rendered in query forum, i.e. cat=xxx&product=yyy. If this is a result of the same, dyanamic routine generating these differently, it may be worth a looksy.

Chuck S · June 16th, 2006, 09:24 AM

Surely one can always find a link that may not be spider url when using it. We try and get most common url's used done but I am sure there are a few not done

thanks

GateKeeper · June 16th, 2006, 11:38 AM

Considering the prominence of this primary link to an ad from a query results page, perhaps it could go on your list of issues to consider for a future release.
Thank you,
GateKeeper