Browser redirect issues

[Michaelangelo]

This may be a basic question, but It's puzzling me. I've always used a browser redirect javascript that will take the surfer to a different version of the site, depending on whether they're using IE or Netscape, and the netscape version will generally be contained in a directory titled "ns".

I plan on submitting my optimized IE pages to the search engines. My questions...

1) will this javascript redirect on my index page hurt my chances at acheiving good rankings?

2) should I include a robots.txt file that disallows spidering on the pages in the netscape folder? I'm concerned about the spiders finding duplicate pages of all the pages in my site.

[eljefe3]

>>1) will this javascript redirect on my index page hurt my chances at acheiving good rankings?

Most browser detects aren't too large of a javascript file, so you should be ok with that. If you have a large .js file, you might consider linking it instead of putting the code on the actual page.

>>2) should I include a robots.txt file that disallows spidering on the pages in the netscape folder? I'm concerned about the spiders finding duplicate pages of all the pages in my site.

Not all spiders are following the robots.txt file, but when they discover a duplicate they should filter out the duplicate and work with just the one page.

[tedster]

Smart thinking to keep the spiders away from the near duplicate pages in the netscape folder. It can be very annoying to have both pages dropped for a while, even though one eventually comes back into the database.

I've been finding that I can use a browser sniffer and then just supply one of two different .css files. This leaves the HTML constant -- only one page needed -- and therefore no redirects are needed.

Also, even when using two different pages, I think the best plan is not to re-direct every visitor, but to make the main page the IE page and redirect only the Netscape user. If you place that redirect in an external .js file, there should be absolutely no search engine misunderstandings.

This plan allows the site's index page to be indexed as is, and just because it IS the index page, it gets a boost on most engines.

[Brett_Tabke]

A js redirect I think will hurt you with Ink and Google depending on how it is done. If you do real heavy js within the page itself, I'm not sure if it isn't just confusing to Google, or they are actively parsing it, but it will hurt.

Now that Mozilla has put the source code to a pretty good js interpeter (es262 js-1.3) into the open source domain (aka: mozilla or netscape 6), at least one sarch engine from what I've heard is using it to parse some high dollar pages. At first that didn't bother, but upon further study, it sends up some red flags. It would be quite easy to hook into the routines designed to redirect or open new windows. That should be a wake up call.

Like eljefe said, your best bet is to put the code into an external file. Although a few scattered reports of se's grabbing js or css files have popped up from time to time, there's been no mass action on it. I think it is still safe. It is also friendly to non-js visitors and decreases your load time.

#3) yes yes. block the dupes. If they are close enough that a spider might detect them as identicle, don't risk it.

[stcrim]

Got about 300 pages with js redirect (used to keep the client out of the optimized pages (I know, I should be more trusting) When the sufer clicks to come in they hit a blank page that redirects in -0- seconds (sometmes). Doing great in INK (spider found them own it's own) Google loves'um - and not doing bad in many others.

>>>will this javascript redirect on my index page hurt my
>>>chances at acheiving good rankings?

Not for us so far!!!

>>>should I include a robots.txt

Call me paranoid, but I am much more scared of the spider wondering what it is I don't want it to see. Since they don't have to obey and sometimes don't - well you get my drift.

Please note: My experience with Robots.txt is "zero" for the above reason. With that in mind you should consider the Robots.txt advice of Brett eljefe3 and Tedster much more solid.