Mod Rewrite Scripts to .htaccess

[MikeSKS]

Hey,

I'm trying to research how mod rewrite scripts and .htaccess are viewed by search engines? Any ideas?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

-Mike

[jdMorgan]

If properly implemented, the actions of mod_rewrite directives used to pass URL requests to scripts are invisible to search engines.

Jim

[MikeSKS]

Hey Jim,

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question, I appreciate it. However, I should've been clearer in what I was asking. When I asked how search engines (google, yahoo, etc.) "view" mod-rewrite scripts and .htaccess, I meant in terms of do they condone this process? What do you believe their views towards this would be? Not the physical viewing of the script. If you have any ideas that you could relay back to me (or anyone else for that matter) that would be much appreciated.

Thanks again for your time.

-Mike

[coopster]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, MikeSKS.

I think what jdMorgan is trying to say is that properly implemented use of redirection is exactly what search engine spiders might expect to find on any given crawl, if they indeed even notice any redirection (referring to external versus internal here). They don't actually read the directives, Apache does that, based on the instruction set you have put in place. Then it delivers the appropriate headers and content body before closing the connection.

[MikeSKS]

Hey Coopster,

Thanks for the welcome and the clarification on what Jim was trying to say. I understand what both of you are saying in regards to how the scripts are actually viewed (or not viewed), but do these search engines (google, yahoo,etc.) consider mod rewrite/.htaccess fair practice since it somewhat manipulates the URL? I guess what I'm trying to get at is it considered ethically wrong to do?

I'm a newcomer to this, but it seems really interesting and I'm trying to get as much background info as possible.

If you have any ideas on that I'd like to hear them.

Thanks again for your time!

-Mike

[coopster]

No, it has nothing to do with fair practice or ethics. Any agent that is requesting a URI should be delivered the appropriate headers and content located at that URI. How the server is used to retrieve and format the content is invisible to the search engines.

The only time this may become an issue is if the server-side process is delivering variations based on unacceptable practices (see cloaking, doorway pages, etc.)