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"I am creating a Virtual directory through IIS that maps a virtual folder to a physical path... so, I could map [oursite.com...] to the physical path on the hard drive that contains the /oldpagetitle files (d:\webfiles\oldpagetitle\) and the webserver will make it appear as though /keyword_phrase is just another folder with files on it."
...edited to remove our site name.
This would seem to be a sort of redirect to me, and therefore bad. Please confirm or deny!
Another question:
Will the spiders remember the old URL and come looking for it, only to be REDIRECTED to the homepage? Yikes!
I've had something like this set up on lots of domains. Saves time from having to go into each domain to upload or download files. It's much easier to do with just a few directories. Also works great when you want to dump all your banners and graphics into one directory.
So I took many of the existing directories in various domains and moved them all into virtual ones. The only trouble I had was when I linked to a few pages across a couple domains. They listed in the SE's only to be dropped a couple weeks down the road for being duplicates.
Other than that I have had no problems. They shouldn't detect anything if you are playing by the "rules".
:(
They are regional sites, should we change the URL to regional_keyword1_keyword2/ ??
Are you trying to set up something like.....
1.)
www.domain1.com/regions/aaaa.html
www.domain2.com/regions/aaaa.html
with the SAME pages pulled from
/drive1/virtual/regions/aaaa.html ??
Where /regions/ is your virtual directory that can be assigned to any domain name. Just by linking to www.anydomain.com/regions/aaaa.html
OR
2.)
www.domain1.com/region1_keyword1/aaaa.html
www.domain2.com/region1_keyword2/aaaa.html
Where even though they have different directory names, they still get their pages from the same virtual drive like...
/drive1/virtual/regions/aaaa.html ??
"It's probably important to have a general understanding of how our site works first. First, we previously had one site running off Cold Fusion. The previous developers did not do a very good job of naming folders either. Then we were asked to modify the code in such a way we could drop regional sites on top using the same codebase. So, we are using the same code to dynamically generate a main site, and 5 other regionalized sites. Now, we are looking at trying to name some of the directories a little more appropriately for the Search Engines. The problem we run into is this far into the site, and with this shared code if we change a directory name, lord only knows where in the code that named is relatively or absolutely referred to, or who may be linking to us with the old directory we are trying to rename. So, the solution would be to add Virtual directories at the server level. We then modify as much code as we know of to point to the new folder, and keep the old folder in case anything was linked to it. Of course then it becomes apparent that because we used a shared codebase, if anyone goes to the older folder, then they eventually will get tangled up in the renamed version because the code was modified to accomadate the new folder name. Also, every single regional site uses that new folder name. So, in response to which way are we proposing, (#1 or #2), we were leaning more towards #1. #2 is also possible, but I don't see where it is much different to a search engine. True the folder is named differently, but it's the exact same page. coming from the exact same code."
Not the easiest of sites to optimize, although, I am sure there are much worse scenarios.
Thanks!
Yeah there won't be any difference at all. It will still be a duplicate. I was just wondering what you were planning to do since you mentioned the regional_keyword1_keyword2/ part. I thought maybe you are just creating these new virtual paths to have the benefit of having a few keyword-named directories for the search engines.
I've been enjoying good listings without having keyword-named directories. On the actual domain name, yes there is a chance it could make a difference but on the directory name you can do just as well with anything.
You can do the robots.txt thing and disallow them to the old directory but you will still face the problem of when a spider visits from a old link on another site. They will get the old page and then get the new one at another time. Sometimes when a spider visits your site from an outside link they won't check the robots.txt or they will at a later time.
I think the worst thing that would probably happen is that they would dump one of the pages and use whatever one they determine as being the "original", which "could" be your old one. They shouldn't drop your site out altogether just because they found a set of duplicates.
I would just create a variation of the older page or a whole new page altogether and keep the old one. Your going to have way too many problems if you have a few domains or directories pointing to the same page. I'm not to familiar with IIS and it's configuration capabilities so I don't know what else there is to play around with.
Thanks for the advice!
