Does this work the same?

SaintIsaiah · 03-24-2010, 10:39 PM

Ok so here's my dilemma. I have a large-content site I'm working on for my boss (62 pages of content.) I wanted to minimize my workload for future edits, so I stripped the header and footer from every page, put them in their own php files, and I'm telling each content page to include them. To keep the same SEO principles and enhance them, I did the following:

1.) Enabled mod_rewrite to translate each .php into .html
2.) Made a global keywords variable in the header (seen below)

PHP Code:


			
$globalKeywords = "internet, Solano, broadband, high speed, fast, Winters, Dixon, Vacaville, Fairfield, Suisun, Green Valley, Elmira, Dixon, Winters 95620, 95687, 95688, 95625, 94585, 95694, web hosting, web design, computer repair";

3.) I then wrote this if/else statement below the global keywords variable (seen below)

PHP Code:


			
if($keywords != "") {

echo "<meta name=\"keywords\" content=\"$globalKeywords.$keywords\">\n";

} else {

echo "<meta name=\"keywords\" content=\"$globalKeywords\">\n";

}

4.) Finally, for each content page, I defined the variable $keywords to add page specific keywords into the header for that page itself (seen below)

PHP Code:


			
$keywords = "dsl speeds, dsl rates, hi speed internet";

So to understand the idea, if there are any page-specific keywords on the content page, it's added into the global keywords. If not, only the global keywords are used.

My boss believes this will make the crawlers confused and not index every page. Am I right in assuming as long as the links work, are in html extensions and do not have variables in the url that they should be able to index just as well, if not better than with fully stand-alone html pages?

delayedinsanity · 03-25-2010, 04:24 AM

Quote:

1.) Enabled mod_rewrite to translate each .php into .html

Doesn't make any difference to the search engines at all. It's query strings you want to avoid.

Quote:

2.) Made a global keywords variable in the header (seen below)

Google (with 67% market share) doesn't even look at your meta keywords or description tag, so this won't affect your relationship with them. Bing does, and despite running a company that should be boycotted instead of considered, so does Yahoo.

Quote:

My boss believes this will make the crawlers confused and not index every page.

They won't mind.

On a side note, if you want to make the site even easier for you to maintain (and use some publicly available plugins which will greatly increase your SEO with very little effort on your part), you should look into WordPress before you go much further.

SaintIsaiah · 03-25-2010, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by delayedinsanity

Doesn't make any difference to the search engines at all. It's query strings you want to avoid.

Google (with 67% market share) doesn't even look at your meta keywords or description tag, so this won't affect your relationship with them. Bing does, and despite running a company that should be boycotted instead of considered, so does Yahoo.

They won't mind.

On a side note, if you want to make the site even easier for you to maintain (and use some publicly available plugins which will greatly increase your SEO with very little effort on your part), you should look into WordPress before you go much further.

Good advise. I've tried recommending WordPress though and he absolutely refused and wants the entire website in basic HTML. Yet I work full time for him and he also holds me responsible if the work I'm doing doesn't get him traffic.

delayedinsanity · 03-25-2010, 04:39 PM

Tell him that if you're going to held responsible for the success or failure of the site, that you need technical control over the execution.

Nobody runs a static site with over four pages of content anymore. Except Google.... they've got Google gnomes writing up static pages for every possible search combination that they can think of. Millions of Google gnomes.

SaintIsaiah · 03-25-2010, 07:09 PM

Just talked to him. He still doesn't want WordPress but he did authorize me to create my own php to manage the content. I've done it a few times before for clients so this definitely makes me feel better.