Guest Posted June 9, 2003 Posted June 9, 2003 Hi When I enable this on my online unix server, it does not work, I get a page not found error, however it does work on my local windowsapache machine which is an exact duplicate. Anyone got any ideas why? Also as it says still under development are there any reasons not to use it? Seeing as google has apparently stopped indexing past the equal signs this seems like an essential feature. Andy
Daemonj Posted June 9, 2003 Posted June 9, 2003 Definitely do not use the Search Engine Safe URL's. If you have a recent install of osC, you should have a SID killer in your Admin ~ Configuration ~ Sessions. Set Prevent Spider Sessions to True. If you do not have that option, search the forum's for "SID and killer" authored by Burt and you will find the necessary code changes. "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence." - A. Einstein
Guest Posted June 9, 2003 Posted June 9, 2003 I have applied this mod already, I don't have any session ID's and have verified this at http://www.searchengineworld.com/cgi-bin/s.../sim_spider.cgi However this does not make any difference as Google have now changed their algorythm and seemingly won't spider anything pas an = sign in the URL, which means that 99% of an oscommerce site is unindexed. The only way to get around this as far as I can see is to use mod_rewrite which is what the inbuilt search engine friendly appears to do, ie it replaces '='with '/' This is happening to other people, and listngs re dropping off the google index. Do a search for google on this forum and you will find the relevant post. I was thinking about using mod_rewrite in my .htaccess file but this will not do anything for the internal structure of the site, ie you can make an url www.xxx.com/product/14 instead of http://www.xxx.com/product_info.php?product_info_id=14 This works fine but it still does not change links on the OScommerce site itself without changing the link structure internally within OSC. This appears to be a major problem that no-one seems bothered about, I know that Google is very important to my site and I need to find a solution. The search engine friendly code in built into OSC is exactly what is needed, however I just don't u8nderstand why it works fine on my development machine but will not work on my Unix server? Andy
scottymcloo Posted June 9, 2003 Posted June 9, 2003 Daemonj Definitely do not use the Search Engine Safe URL's. Can you please let us know why you suggest that we do NOT use search engine URL's. I do have this switched on, and since then have only been sidered once by google (212.x.x.x) (in the past 12 weeks!) Googlebot (64.x.x.x) does visit me almost every day and takes around 100 pages - I am still top of the search engine, but my ranking has gone from 4 to 0 on my product pages. If I turn off search engine friendly url's - the search pages on google reports that it cant find the product (I know that will disappear) - does having this switched on or off matter - I was fully spidered and still have my rankings on pages when SEFURL's is off! (Hope all that makes sense!) I think we really need to get to the bottom of this problem - as I imagine most sites depend heavily on Google and other search engines. One thing to note - Microsoft.com use dynamic pages - and they rank 10! Any help is much appreciated!
Guest Posted June 9, 2003 Posted June 9, 2003 I'd like to know why it isn't a good idea also, it seems like a totally undiscussed subject.... Plus could somebody in the know tell me how it works, does it utilise mod_rewrite at all? I can't understand why it won't work on my unix server, and I need more info to trouble shoot. Please? Andy
edwing Posted June 11, 2003 Posted June 11, 2003 Definitely do not use the Search Engine Safe URL's. I have been testing this on our test website for a little while and haven't seen any problems with it. Can you please elaborate on why it shouldn't be used? If you do not have that option, search the forum's for "SID and killer" authored by Burt and you will find the necessary code changes. I can't find a Sid killer contribution by Burt, the ones i found are: SID Killer v1.2 (by Ian Wilson) http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,952 Spider Killer for MS1 (by Henri Schmidhuber) http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,1089 What is the one you're referring to?
Daemonj Posted June 11, 2003 Posted June 11, 2003 Search engine safe URL selection is "Still Under Development" as it says. With certain contribs and other mods it just breaks the site. You are better off just leaving them off. Burt's SID killer is not a contribution but a forum topic. Such is the reason that I said to search the forums for the information. Therefore, in general on a stock osC site the SE safe URL's setting is probably safe to use. When you have modifications/contributions installed then you run the risk of killing your site. "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence." - A. Einstein
toolcrazy Posted June 11, 2003 Posted June 11, 2003 This is the truth, believe him. I've seen the posts over and over again. They are told to shut of the search engine safe URL in admin and the problems go away. Burts thread is here. http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/viewtopic.php...6708&highlight= Steve -------------------------
scottymcloo Posted June 11, 2003 Posted June 11, 2003 If your cart is working 100% either with or without search engine firendly URL's what is the recomendation about its use. My site was fully spidered (a total of about 500 pages) on google, but over the past 2 weeks my products have been dropping off one by one. Mainly the products that are left are the ones that were originally spidered (when not using Search Engine URLs). In any event, I've turned it off because I think from a search engine point of view it has caused me some damage. I still have a page ranking of 4 for my main page, and need to maintain that. Also, since turning Search engine URLs on - I have not had a deep crawl (about 6-8 weeks now!) If anyone can shed any light on this, I think it would help a lot of users Thanks Graeme
Guest Posted June 12, 2003 Posted June 12, 2003 Pardon to use a translating program. I have a store made with oscommerce and I have signal the option search engine friendly, however I have observed the following thing: When I enter for the first time in the store the url's they appear me with sessions (product_info.php/products_id/40?osCsid=b3a072dd0bfa234af345cb222ca59ab1), and after loading the page those sessions again they disappear and I see url's but friendly (product_info.php/products_id/40). Those two url's offers them the same store and not you because it happens that. I also installed sid killer but everything continues equally. The first time that I enter in the store the url he/she appears with sessions and if I load the page again they disappear. As I solve this? I have also proven http://www.searchengineworld.com/cgi-bin/s.../sim_spider.cgi and I realize that all the pages appear with oscid = I wait your help and excuses to use this translating program.
scottymcloo Posted June 22, 2003 Posted June 22, 2003 Can anyone give a reason why not to use search engine friendly urls if your store is working. ie. Is there any other reason apart from it might break the cart. any help is appreciated Graeme
Guest Posted June 22, 2003 Posted June 22, 2003 I am curious also, I read a post here somewhere stating that search engines like google have change their algorithm so that when they hit a site that has the = (equal) sign in the url, it deletes the = sign and everything after it which is good for eliminating session ID's from showing up, but bad for products. If that is the case, products are going to start dropping off unless search engine friendly URL's are used.
Paul_w Posted June 23, 2003 Posted June 23, 2003 I am curious also, I read a post here somewhere stating that search engines like google have change their algorithm so that when they hit a site that has the = (equal) sign in the url, it deletes the = sign and everything after it which is good for eliminating session ID's from showing up, but bad for products. If that is the case, products are going to start dropping off unless search engine friendly URL's are used. This is not correct, I have just finally got my site listed in Google, all my category pages and some of my product pages have been indexed. I have never enabled the SEF url's. I do not use sessions on my site though, I force cookie usage, so I don't know if this makes any difference.
Bodger Posted July 11, 2003 Posted July 11, 2003 I am very concerned about these Search Engine Friendly URL's by definition they cannot work. How is it working? The url http://mydomain.com/mycatalog/products.php...p/product_id/58 is not going to be recognized by Apache my webserver as a CGI form value, hence it cannot work ever. Am I missing something or what? I am plagued by it as well, but till I can understand how this works I cannot use it since it breaks Apache. Bodger
HyperJack Posted July 11, 2003 Posted July 11, 2003 Search google on these forums and you'll find a lot of discussion on this subject.
Silencer Posted July 11, 2003 Posted July 11, 2003 I am very concerned about these Search Engine Friendly URL's by definition they cannot work. How is it working? The url http://mydomain.com/mycatalog/products.php...p/product_id/58 is not going to be recognized by Apache my webserver as a CGI form value, hence it cannot work ever. Am I missing something or what? I am plagued by it as well, but till I can understand how this works I cannot use it since it breaks Apache. Bodger Try this: http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,1332 There is always more than one way to do it. And always Keep It Simple, Stupid.
jnmunsey Posted August 26, 2003 Posted August 26, 2003 This contribution is good if you are starting from scratch, but many of us cannot move our site's location - this SEF contrib requires OSC to be installed in the root folder.. I can't do it.. My catalog is a supplement to a primary site.. I am very concerned about these Search Engine Friendly URL's by definition they cannot work. How is it working? The url http://mydomain.com/mycatalog/products.php...p/product_id/58 is not going to be recognized by Apache my webserver as a CGI form value, hence it cannot work ever. Am I missing something or what? I am plagued by it as well, but till I can understand how this works I cannot use it since it breaks Apache. Bodger Try this: http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,1332
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