SEO Concerns for Database Structure

[MarcieZoob]

We're reviewing a site for a company that is ranking poorly on the search engines (especially Google) for SEO services. They are not getting visits yet they have tons of outgoing/incoming links but zero META tags. In analyzing their site structure, the results that came back from the spider simulator are very unusual.

So, first off, a sample page URL from the site map is - theirdomain.com/interior_template/category_84/

("interior_template" refers to the template for that particular category; they are using two templates but I thought it unusual that it's a sub-directory...)

A sample page URL once browsing the database is -
theirdomain.com/interior_template/category_84/?Action=Letter&catid=63&id=c

Here's the strange part - when I ran the site through a spider simulater, the results that were returned were:

theirdomain.com/HTTP://www.theirdomain.com/interior_template/category_84/

The domain was duplicated in each link...? I also received a warning that the link had too many parameters and would not do well on the search engines.

The question is - can anything be done in regard to SEO with this type of existing site structure?

[imported__sam_]

Hello Marcie,

I think, the strange URL returned by your spider simulator is a problem of that particular tool. Search engines can handle such types of URLs.

It is true, however, that they don't like them, especially if there is more than one parameter. What you could do, if the site runs Apache, is to use mod_rewrite to hide the parameters in something that looks like a filename. I'm sure other major http server can do the same, but I know only Apache.

best regards

Sam

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by _sam_

Hello Marcie,

I think, the strange URL returned by your spider simulator is a problem of that particular tool. Search engines can handle such types of URLs.

It is true, however, that they don't like them, especially if there is more than one parameter. What you could do, if the site runs Apache, is to use mod_rewrite to hide the parameters in something that looks like a filename. I'm sure other major http server can do the same, but I know only Apache.

best regards

Sam

If you dont go over 3 parameters you should be alright.

[steve0]

If you have the capability, use mod-rewrite and make the variables look like directories.. no more dangling values..

and the webstats may look more informative as well.

[MarcieZoob]

Thanks! I appreciate the feedback.