I have been asked this question a million times.
’ if i have the SEO Mod enabled, does that mean i have to only search for the HTML links and not the php links in the Site Map software’
My own answer to that is mixed. Some say it does not matter as the spiders will only pick out the html anyway, on the other hand people advise against the uploading of the .php links if using an SEO Mod.
So i put it to you, the jury, what do you think is the correct method ?
Personally I don’t think it makes a difference,
The html files are nothing BUT rewritten php files what it is the attractive bit is that google/yahoo/msn (I call them GYM) all prefer html files as it looks ‘static’ rather then dynamic.
As we all know dynamic webpages change constantly and it would be safe to assume that if google cache’s a dynamic page when a googler visits that pages after finding a relevant search result then it most likely will change to be something completely unrelevant.
Again, it’s something that GYM likes. I’m only in the pleasing department at the moment so SEO urls make things easier to manage.
An ‘absolute definite maybe’ i take it on that reply to my question then.
:lol:
If you provide both to search engines such as google…
i.e
www.your-cart.com/computer-p1.php and
www.your-cart.com/index.php?product=1&target=products
or something like that hehe
Then essentially you are submitting duplicate content, as google will class both of these pages as individual…
Therefore, with 1000 products using both html and php you will end up with 1000 duplicate pages on google, which will certainly not impress them in the slightest…
[quote name=‘SWS’]Therefore, with 1000 products using both html and php you will end up with 1000 duplicate pages on google, which will certainly not impress them in the slightest…[/quote] Black hat SEO tricks can be a short-time benefit lol
[quote name=‘SWS’]If you provide both to search engines such as google…
Then essentially you are submitting duplicate content, as google will class both of these pages as individual…[/QUOTE]
I spend a fair amount of time on a well respected SEO forum, and from everything I understand, SWS is absolutely correct. Search engines actually index PHP sites fine, though some feel (and there is some incidental evidence) that SE’s at least initially prefer html extensions over php, but there are tons of examples where sites that outwardly proclaim they are php (use the php extension) rank at the top of even competitive searches.
The problem as SWS stated is duplicate content, which can hurt you in the SE’s. You won’t incur a penalty per se, but the SE’s don’t recognize the php page and html page as the same page, they see them as duplicate pages and will decide on their own which of the two they will list, usually dropping the other from search results (though it will commonly remain in the index). A listing for either page will still get customers to your store, BUT, any benefit you derive from links to your html page will not help your link popularity for the php page, and vice versa. In other words, you are effectively splitting the potential popularity of your page between the two versions, which can have a negative impact on where you rank in the search results.
I haven’t messed w/ the SEO module personally as I’m both skeptical of it’s real value and am concerned about the potential of duplicate content. At the very least, if I was to use the SEO module, I’d exclude all .php files from spidering via a robots.txt file, and do everything in my power to prevent anyone from even knowing they exist.
Some very good points being added as usual. Personally i think point getting across here are both have weighty support on both sides of the fence, but all probally agree that you cannot have both links.
I think the jury has come back with a verdict on this and found in favour of neither, but both have merits individually.
Summing up then. Both are O.K on there own, the choice is upto the individual, but simply do not list both.
Use the robots.txt so php is not searched if this is your choice, though SE’s do not guarantee that they will take any notice of these, thought most do.
Me, ill take my chances with .html
Richard