> My question is: will the search engines follow that link to the final destination and
> would cflocation be best used or a meta refresh in the link_counter.cfm page?
As I understand it, that won't work very well. Much of the benefit of
link directories lies in the search engines counting how many other
sites link to a particular site, to calculate the site's perceived
importance. Search engine spiders wouldn't see your example link as a
link to houseoffusion... they'd see it as a link to the same site. I
believe cflocation sends a 301 "moved" header (I could be wrong, I
always get 301 and 302 mixed up) so search engines might be hesitant
to consider it a permanent link. Ditto with meta refresh... most
spiders just won't bother following it.
Here's how I'm planning on building a link directory for a tourism
site I'm involved with:
<a href=""> > false">Example Site</a>
(onclick can be a function or whatever counting method you want)
Spiders (and other _javascript_ disabled user agents) will follow the
href link... other users will use the script and count the hit. It
won't be perfect (ie, it won't count non-js agents) but I think it's a
good alternative and is search engine friendly.
--
Kay Smoljak
http://kay.smoljak.com
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