PHP - Moved: Which Way For Search Engines ?

Search engines don't see the php programming of a site, they only see the output, right? What we see when we "View Source" of a webpage?

Hi there,

I am designing a PHP MYSQL web site and I want all pages to appear in search engines.

I have seen a web site listed in a search engine with a link like:

www.website.co.uk/product.php/4478/

If the number is changed to 4477 then a different product is loaded. How does this work? I thought the link needed a question mark (?) in the link to pass the information and I thought this was bad news in terms of SearchEngineOptimisation?

I am aware that if the link passed 4478 in the URL along with a question mark (?) in the URL it would load that product also but IT WOULD NOT APPEAR IN SEARCH ENGINES. Is this a common way around the search engine issue and how does it work???

Are there other, perhaps better ways to design my links and also the Search Engine prospects for the web site I am creating?

Thanks,

Matt.

Hi,

A web site designed about 5 years ago is doing well in search engines but I am designing a new web site using PHP, CSS and MySQL. The old site was HTML and CSS.

Do you have any design tips for Search Engines Optimisation when using PHP and MySQL? --- I will start coding soon, so all tips will be used.

Thanks,

Matt.

Search Engines punish us for having "links" pages because some people do this to promote sites to raise their search rankings.  I don't do that for the same reason.  I want to recommend certain sites to my guests but I don't want to get punished for doing so.

I might have a solution.  (So, in addition to asking about the php code that I would need, I'm also asking if the following trick will even work to avoid getting punished in my ranking.)

Instead of the traditional. . .
Code: [Select]
<p><a href="http://www.phpfreaks.com">PHP Freaks</a></p>
I thought I would try something like this. . .
Code: [Select]
<!-- SEARCH ENGINES -->
<form name="myform" action="http://www.mywebsite.com/searchformhandler.php" method="POST">
<div align="center">
<select name="searchengineselection">
<option value="http://www.bing.com/">Bing</option>
<option value="http://www.dogpile.com">Dog Pile</option>
<option value="http://www.google.com">Google</option>
<option value="http://www.startpage.com">Start Page</option>
</select>
<input type="submit" name="searchengineselection" value="Insert">
</div>
</form>

These are only example sites.  I have a whole page of suggested websites to send my guests to.

Now, if this is a good idea, I'll need to create a file called, "searchformhandler.php."

I think I know enough to figure out how to echo the right substitute code, I just don't know how to execute it.

I'm rusty.  There's got to be a command to open a web page.  I don't think I would do some like this. . .

Code: [Select]
<?PHP
echo "<a href='" + searchengineselection + '"> // or whatever
?>

Isn't there some kind of php command to send a link?

Also, I need way to pass the form data value from the weblinks.php page to the searchformhandler.php file

How do you have a log generate two different logs, and having where it posts the log at, depend on if it's a visitor, or a search engine spider HTTP_USER_AGENT (Like Googlebot, Msnbot, Yahoo! Slurp.)

<?php
    define("DATE_FORMAT","m-d-Y - H:i:s");
    define("LOG_FILE","/full_path/visitors.html");
    define("LOG_FILE2","/full_path/search_engine_bots.html");

    $logfileHeader='DATE - IP - HOSTNAME - BROWSER - URI - REFERRER'."\n";

    $userAgent = (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']) && ($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] != "")) ? $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] : "Unknown";
    $userIp    = (isset($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'])     && ($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] != ""))     ? $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']     : "Unknown";
    $refferer  = (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'])    && ($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] != ""))    ? $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']    : "Unknown";
    $uri       = (isset($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'])     && ($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] != ""))     ? $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']     : "Unknown";

    $hostName   = gethostbyaddr($userIp);
    $actualTime = date(DATE_FORMAT);

    $logEntry = "$actualTime - $userIp - $hostName - $userAgent - $uri - $refferer<BR>\n";

    if (!file_exists(LOG_FILE)) {
        $logFile = fopen(LOG_FILE,"w");
        fwrite($logFile, $logfileHeader);
    }
    else {
        $logFile = fopen(LOG_FILE,"a");
    }

    fwrite($logFile,$logEntry);
    fclose($logFile);
?>