Dynamic pages, static URLS in PHP.

On Tue, 30 Sep 2003 11:15:47 +0100, Mary Pegg
<nospam DeleteThis @widetrouser.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:

 > Any pointers to handy bits of PHP or whatever for this one would
 > be much appreciated: Google seems to dig up lots of snake-oil
 > merchants.
 >
 > Being lazy, I'd rather re-use code; being *very* lazy I thought
 > I would ask <ingrate> the experts </ingrate>.
 >
 > In case you hadn't guessed already, the requirement is for
 > PHP/MySQL to generate pages of the form wibble.com/products/12/
 > rather than wibble.com/products?id=12...

What exactly do you want to do this for?

Grey

--
The technical axiom that nothing is impossible sinisterly implies the
pitfall corollory that nothing is ridiculous.
- <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.greywyvern.com" target="_blank">http://www.greywyvern.com</a> - Orca RingMaker: PHP web ring creation and
management<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Dynamic pages, static URLS in PHP. 

EightNineThree wrote:

 > It sounds as if you're looking for mod_rewrite
<font color=purple> > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_rewrite.html</font" target="_blank">http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_rewrite.html</font</a>>

Thanks. I thought there was some PHP wibble involved...
but throwing mod_rewrite at Google along with the
other search terms has produced:
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.searchtools.com/robots/goodurls.html" target="_blank">http://www.searchtools.com/robots/goodurls.html</a>
which looks like it has some useful links on the
subject.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Dynamic pages, static URLS in PHP. 

Mary Pegg wrote:

 > the requirement is for PHP/MySQL to generate pages of the form
 > wibble.com/products/12/ rather than wibble.com/products?id=12...

<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://evolt.org/article/Search_Engine_Friendly_URLs_with_PHP_and_Apache/17/15049/index.html" target="_blank">http://evolt.org/article/Search_Engine_Friendly_URLs_with_PHP_and_Apac...17/1504</a>
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://evolt.org/article/Search_Engine_Friendly_URLs_Part_II/17/17171/index.html" target="_blank">http://evolt.org/article/Search_Engine_Friendly_URLs_Part_II/17/17171/index.html</a>

--
David Dorward <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://dorward.me.uk/" target="_blank">http://dorward.me.uk/</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Dynamic pages, static URLS in PHP. 

David Dorward wrote:

 >http://evolt.org/article/Search_Engine_Friendly_URLs_Part_II/17/17171/index.html

Thanks, looks quite useful.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Dynamic pages, static URLS in PHP. 

GreyWyvern wrote:

 > On Tue, 30 Sep 2003 11:15:47 +0100, Mary Pegg
 > <nospam.RemoveThis@widetrouser.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
 >
  >> In case you hadn't guessed already, the requirement is for
  >> PHP/MySQL to generate pages of the form wibble.com/products/12/
  >> rather than wibble.com/products?id=12...
 >
 > What exactly do you want to do this for?

<answer class="smart">
Money.
</answer>

I appreciate your thinking - I too am fed up of posts asking
what the best explosive is for blowing doors off - but in this
case it's what I have to implement. The "problem" (in case you
haven't guessed already) is climbing to the top of the slippery
Google pole. The client has spent considerable amounts of
time researching this and playing with Google and he tells me
this is effective.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Dynamic pages, static URLS in PHP. 

On Tue, 30 Sep 2003 16:38:19 +0100, Mary Pegg
<nospam.RemoveThis@widetrouser.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:

 > GreyWyvern wrote:
 >
  >> On Tue, 30 Sep 2003 11:15:47 +0100, Mary Pegg
  >> <nospam.RemoveThis@widetrouser.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
  >>
   >>> In case you hadn't guessed already, the requirement is for
   >>> PHP/MySQL to generate pages of the form wibble.com/products/12/
   >>> rather than wibble.com/products?id=12...
  >>
  >> What exactly do you want to do this for?
 >
 > <answer class="smart">
 > Money.
 > </answer>
 >
 > I appreciate your thinking - I too am fed up of posts asking
 > what the best explosive is for blowing doors off - but in this
 > case it's what I have to implement. The "problem" (in case you
 > haven't guessed already) is climbing to the top of the slippery
 > Google pole. The client has spent considerable amounts of
 > time researching this and playing with Google and he tells me
 > this is effective.

As long as they are linked with honest-to-goodness HTML links, Google has
no problem with URLs containing a query string. The PHP forum on my site
displays every message via different query stringsm with links on the main
page. Google gets to nearly all of them.

For example, this search:
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.google.com/search?q=%22This+is+a+Windows+PHP+glitch%22" target="_blank">http://www.google.com/search?q=%22This+is+a+Windows+PHP+glitch%22</a>

.... easily finds the text in this post:

<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.greywyvern.com/forum.php?View&msg=125" target="_blank">http://www.greywyvern.com/forum.php?View&msg=125</a>

In short, you'll be screwing up a lot, for very little effect.

Grey

--
The technical axiom that nothing is impossible sinisterly implies the
pitfall corollory that nothing is ridiculous.
- <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.greywyvern.com" target="_blank">http://www.greywyvern.com</a> - Orca RingMaker: PHP web ring creation and
management<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Dynamic pages, static URLS in PHP. 

GreyWyvern wrote:

 > As long as they are linked with honest-to-goodness HTML links, Google has
 > no problem with URLs containing a query string. The PHP forum on my site
 > displays every message via different query stringsm with links on the main
 > page. Google gets to nearly all of them.

It is a question of ranking. My own take on this is that it's the client's
job to provide content, my job to organise it and present it, and Google's
job to find it and index it, and "clever tricks" with Google are of limited
use.

*However*, I am led to believe that given sites selling widgets and
blodgets in brown and blue, when Jo User searches for a brown widget,
wibble.com/widgets/brown/1.htm ranks higher than
wobble.com/products.php?id=4

 > In short, you'll be screwing up a lot, for very little effect.

What's being screwed up?<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Dynamic pages, static URLS in PHP. 

GreyWyvern wrote:

 > As long as they are linked with honest-to-goodness HTML links, Google
 > has no problem with URLs containing a query string. The PHP forum on my
 > site displays every message via different query stringsm with links on
 > the main page. Google gets to nearly all of them.

You are both kind of right. Google will spider dynamically created pages,
but only up to a point.

<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.example.tld/index.php?id=1&page=2" target="_blank">http://www.example.tld/index.php?id=1&page=2</a> - will get spidered with no
problems, but:

<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.example.tld/index.php?id=1&page=2&name=fred" target="_blank">http://www.example.tld/index.php?id=1&page=2&name=fred</a>

might have more difficulty. Google employs some method of deciding when
pages are just being randomly generated and will generally start to ignore
some pages when they contain more than 2 variables in the URL.

Of course, the OP only has 1 variable per URL in her examples, but even so
it might help for customers to be able to remember the URLs. I know that
certainly since I changed from using URLs like:
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.webpageworkshop.co.uk/index.php?category=main&file=privacy.xml" target="_blank">http://www.webpageworkshop.co.uk/index.php?category=main&file=privacy.xml</a>

to using urls like:

<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.webpageworkshop.co.uk/main/privacy" target="_blank">http://www.webpageworkshop.co.uk/main/privacy</a>

the number of visitors has increased massively. Of course, YMMV as it
invariably will.

--
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<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.webpageworkshop.co.uk" target="_blank">http://www.webpageworkshop.co.uk</a> - FREE Web tutorials and references
Now playing: Bizet - L'Arlésienne Suite No. 2<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Dynamic pages, static URLS in PHP. 

Mary Pegg wrote:

 > GreyWyvern wrote:
 >
 >
  >>As long as they are linked with honest-to-goodness HTML links, Google has
  >>no problem with URLs containing a query string. The PHP forum on my site
  >>displays every message via different query stringsm with links on the main
  >>page. Google gets to nearly all of them.
 >
 >
 > It is a question of ranking. My own take on this is that it's the client's
 > job to provide content, my job to organise it and present it, and Google's
 > job to find it and index it, and "clever tricks" with Google are of limited
 > use.
 >
 > *However*, I am led to believe that given sites selling widgets and
 > blodgets in brown and blue, when Jo User searches for a brown widget,
 > wibble.com/widgets/brown/1.htm ranks higher than
 > wobble.com/products.php?id=4

What about:
wobble.com/products.php?id=4&desc=widgets&colour=brown

It doesn't mean you have to use the extra variables.

Or alternatively:
wobble.com/products.php?location=/widgets/brown/1.htm

And the $location var can be broken into the necessary information.

  >>In short, you'll be screwing up a lot, for very little effect.
 >
 > What's being screwed up?

1. Your directory structure because you're making up structures that
don't exist.
2. Your PHP.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Dynamic pages, static URLS in PHP.