What do Spiders see on Header( Location ) Redirect

Can Redirects be used to eliminate URL parameters

[RoadRaceResults]

Hello,
If I use
<?
Header( "Location: [example.com...] );
?>

as a way to redirect from
[example.com...]

What will the Spider see?
Will this approach help in SEO?

Thanks
David Brooks

[jorj]

I am looking for a similar solution to solve the problem of a search form: the action of the form goes to a page, locate part of the response then return a 301 to another page with some extra parameters where I can provide the rest of the result.

I told you about this example to make a difference between different needs. You may want to get spidered while I do not because mine is a search page not a product page. In your case I would use .htaccess and mod_rewrite to transform the request from /wiget-1/ into /product.php?id=1

What I'm curious is if my solution will work or I am getting into a wrong dirrection.

[RoadRaceResults]

I found a good solution to the Spider Friendly URL redirect problem when IIS Rewrite isn't available.
(my host is IIS and they won't install IIS Rewrite 3rd party addon)

In the /wiget-1/default.php page simply put:
<?php
$spiderFriendlyParms = array ( 'id' => '1' );
include 'product.php';
?>

Then in 'product.php' at the top put:

if( isset( $spiderFriendlyParms ) )
{
foreach( $spiderFriendlyParms as $key => $value )
{
$_GET[$key] = $value;
}
}

This allows the parameters to get passed into the actual PHP page using global vars and then they are copied into the $_GET array so the script can't tell the difference.

It works well. Now I just need to automatically generate one of these stub Spider-Friendly-Keywords.php pages for all the possible parameter values that could be sent to the database query.
In my case that is a few hundred of them.

David

[jorj]

Ah, so much trouble for having an hoster like that. Didn't you find any other solution?I think a site with no mod_rewrite available is convicted to fail nowadays.

If you're short of money you can ask someone here to get an account on one of their servers..

[RoadRaceResults]

Hi Jorj,

You said...
>> If you're short of money you can ask someone here to get an account on one of their servers..

Yes, money is an issue now since I am just launching my site and revenue hasn't started yet.

When you say, "someone here", where do you mean? WemasterWorld? Who would I contact?

Thanks
David Brooks

[jorj]

Hi,

yes, on this site. I estimate that 20% of the ones here have their own server, especially those who earn $100/day/site. Just post your request ( make a nice one) to the appropiate forum (wm general or even Foo) and see what are the results. With a little luck you will find someone to help you.

Regards
Alex