Is there any benefit whatsoever to the first point (parsing other extensions thru CF)?
I can believe it might have been true in the past but I've never had a problem getting CF pages indexed. I thought it was the parameters that *might* get you; not the page extension. Anyone with recent experience to the contrary? I'd add that you should publish to static HTML wherever possible (which may be the bulk of the pages on many sites). I do it because I'm greedy about conserving server resources, but I sell it to clients by telling them the links are more SE-friendly. Of course you can always do the old blah.cfm/parm/value bit, but that opened up a security hole in CF. http://www.securityfocus.com/advisories/4110 I use it on 4.5 cuz I have a site-wide error handler, whose special handling of 404's supposedly makes the technique safe to use. Did this ever get patched in one of the MX updaters? ------------------------------------------- Matt Robertson, [EMAIL PROTECTED] MSB Designs, Inc. http://mysecretbase.com ------------------------------------------- ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: Gyrus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2003 21:07:01 +0100 >At 15:37 08/07/2003 -0400, you wrote: >>There was a thread on this list recently about Search Engine Optimization >>for CF sites. Just so happens SEO has become an issue for me on a freelance >>project, and I want to start a list of best practices I can work into my >>development processes. Thus far, I have three items: >> >>1) Configure the server to run other file extensions through the CF parser >>(i.e. HTM, HTML) in order to avoid being ignored >>2) Use meta description and meta keyword tags to indicate content on the >>site >>3) Use search engine safe links instead of passing CGI parameters > >Making sure the crawler bots index your pages is obviously the best first >step... Bear in mind that Googlebot and others can index dynamic pages, but >only if they're linked to from static pages (i.e. ones with a "?" in the >URL). But then special pages of links for crawlers are only a last resort, >and using some sort of other site-wide technique (slash-delimited query >strings, or getting your CMS to write out flat HTML files) is preferrable. > >But as far as actual optimisation goes, the following rules are important >in today's Google-centric web (more than META keywords and description, >though I always use these anyway, for their potential value for things >other than Google): > >- Put keywords in the TITLE tag of your page. I used to avoid this cos I >sympathise with people bookmarking things and having to change the title to >something short and useful in your browser. But then, if no one finds your >page, how can they bookmark it? ;-) I go for a reasonable phrase-like >string like "Cheap Banana Imports for UK Retail, from XYZ corp" - instead >of "XYZ corp - Home" (which is nicer for bookmarking, but useless for >search engines). > >- Use structural XHTML markup wherever possible. Make sure the H1 tag >contains keywords relevant to the page's topic (without rendering it silly >as a human-readable main title of course). Pages with keywords in the >TITLE, H1, and body text near the top of the page get higher rankings than >those that don't. > >- If possible, use table-less CSS layouts. Then you can shove your H1 and >main content right at the top of the markup, even if in the layout it comes >underneath loads of navigation and banners and whatnot. These can be shoved >at the bottom of the code, but positioned at the top using CSS positioning. >Obviously in tables, you're often forced to have your left-hand side nav as >well as your top nav above the content in your markup. This means lower >rankings. > >These aren't set in stone, but they've got me some pretty good rankings so far. > >HTH, > >Gyrus >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >play: http://norlonto.net/ >work: http://tengai.co.uk/ >PGP key available > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=4 FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
