.nsf pages

.nsf site: what about search engine spiders?

[misciab]

Hi everybody! My first time on the forum... here is my problem: We have to promote a site with .nsf (Lotus Notes Domino, I think) page extension. Anyone can help me? Do search engine spiders treat it as a 'dynamic page'? Is it possible to save any page with an .html page extension? Help, please!

[Rumbas]

Hi

The search engine does not care wether the pages are .html, .asp or .nfs etc. It's the content that matters. Pages with a .NSF extension should not be a problem.

BUT everything else with Lotus Domino Notes is. I've run into several sites that are built in NSF. The URL's can be horrible with lots of no-good letters as %, &, = and more. Furthermore they are often build in frames.

A couple of years ago we wouldn't even touch NSF sites. Today it's better but often takes a lot of editing before the spiders are able to crawl the sites.

My 2 cents..

[agerhart]

he search engine does not care wether the pages are .html, .asp or .nfs etc.

I don't agree with this entirely.......if you use ASP with clean URL's you will be okay, but it is a bit more difficult to get pages indexed with ? in the URL

[Macguru]

Hi misciab,

Wecome to WmW you will love this place!

What will cause you problems with Domino are special caracters like "?" or "$" or else in the URL more than the .cfm extension. Also, it tends to make URL too long with numeric strings, try to keep them around 62 caracters in total lenght. I am not at all familiar with domino scripting but had a couple of first hand experience with it. My last experience with this is that they cannot live without this stuff in the URLs.

The best thing is to spot and save real static HTML version of pages already using the relevant keywords. Explain the friendly IT how important it is for SE placement. The last time I tried, the IT guy took everything personally and was so difficult to deal with that I had to pop doorways all over the place, and leave the original site untouched.

Feel free to use the "site search" feature on top menu to dig the gold knowledge mine that WmW is. There are many ways to deal with dynamic technology, but domino is some tough nut to crack for me.

Good Luck!

[Rumbas]

>it is a bit more difficult to get pages indexed with ? in the URL

Agreed. That's in the URL.

Wether the EXTENSION is:

Page.HTML
Page.ASP
Page.NSF
- makes no difference.
AFAIK.

[Macguru]

>Furthermore they are often build in frames.

Wich is a big plus in my book! <NOFRAME> IS SOOO SEXY!

[Rumbas]

><NOFRAME> IS SOOO SEXY!

Sure is - if you can handle it, it is an advantage getting a NSF site indexed ;)
Throwing in a few static pages linked from the NOFRAMES will do you good as well.

>but domino is some tough nut to crack for me.

Me too.

[misciab]

Thank you all! I will try to convince the IT to change some pages into old, good , HTML pages. And I will use the <noframes> tag for linking to them.
But WHY do search engine spiders still refuse "?", "$", "#" characters? what about updating?

[Macguru]

I am not 100% sure here, but I think the reason is that some people abused SE with database driven traps that where designed to feed spiders with gazillion of pages. This created such a strain on SE servers that they programmed the spiders to run away from dynamic technologies. So it is some kind of "update".

Some SE went further and programmed the spiders so they could deal with special caracters in URL without beeig caught into such traps. I believe Google, AV, fast and Inktomi can already index dynamic sites. But dynamic sites never score good like HTML.

Some sites have no other choice than to use some dynamic technology. The IT guys write some scripts so output URL are clean.

Good luck misciab!