> 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
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