> On Mon, Feb 09, 2004 at 02:31:16PM -0500, Lowell Allen wrote: >> A recent thread on the WebDesign-L raised the question of whether search >> engines can detect (and penalize sites for) PHP redirects of the form: >> >> header("Location: http://www.whatever.com/"); >> >> I don't see how that could be the case, since the redirect occurs on the >> server before any HTML is output to the browser. Someone else says: >> >>> No, the header() redirect immediately tells the /client/ to make a second >>> GET request at a different location and the client (search bot) must >>> actively make that 2nd request to the "Location:" URL (what happens if you >>> request amazon.com) Note this is different from simply sniffing the UA >>> string from a single request and serving altered content. > > This is accurate (the explanation from webdesign-l). Try it yourself: > [snip] > >> What say you, PHP list? Would it be better (in terms of search engine >> detection) to use include() to serve different or altered content? > > Do neither. Create excellent content, structured well, and the search > engines will reward you for this. Try to trick them, and they will > likely figure it out and penalize you.
I'm not interested in tricking search bots. However, for the sake of user-friendly URLs, I use mod_rewrite to send most requests to index.php, then based on the request string I include() different content. I wanted to verify that wasn't creating a problem with search engines. > However, if you're asking whether or not Google can determine if you're > using include() to serve up different content based on the UserAgent or > perhaps the IP address, then no, bots can't figure that out. Unless > they switch useragents/IPs and compare the results that they get. Or > unless a human complains that the listing is innacurate. etc... Thanks Joel and thanks John for confirming the WebDesign-L explanation. -- Lowell Allen -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php