> I've heard different claims about how google handles GET queries and am > pretty sure it doesn't submit POSTed forms.
I can guarantee that at least one time one search engine indexed a URL with GET data in it. Shocked the [bleep] out of me to find one of my dynamic pages in a search results page. :-) "Hey! They don't index those dynamix pages?! Hmmm. Guess they do now. Sometimes." I don't know what sort of algorithm the search engines use to decide which, if any, URLs with ? in them are worth indexing or not. Since Google won't publish their inner workings, one can only hypothesize and theorize about what they do. But once I found that one URL, I decided to re-think a lot of my sites and now I make the decision on a page by page basis if I want a static-looking URL or a dynamic-looking one. I'd much rather do that than try to beat my head against the "How does Google work" wall, or wade through a zillion "search engine optimization" experts' postings (much of which is bunk or out-dated or sheer guess-work). Maybe someday search engines will make an informed decision that even a static-looking URL is really dynamic, and classify it in the "don't index" bucket, and vice versa. For the forseeable future, though, I think it's safe to say that rewriting your URLs will help search engines find you. Worked for me. A musical artist I know (and you almost-for-sure don't know of him) checks his own name Google et al routinely every few weeks or so. He's quite disconcerted when one of my pages "bumps" his own site down to #2 occasionally. Fortunately, he usually pops back up to #1 next time he tests. Thank goodness we're friends and he controls the content on his profile on my site, so it's always up to him what people see when they go there anyway. In terms of bang for the buck in search engine optimization, making your URLs search-engine friendly has to be just about as good as it gets. -- Like Music? http://l-i-e.com/artists.htm -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
