Will this type of dynamic URL cause problems?

[ichthyous]

Hi there...I am rebuilding my website using a photo gallery app called "Gallery". Gallery allows yu to uses various themes, some of which come pre-installed and others which are user contributed. I want to use one of the user designed themes but it appends an additional URL string to the end of an otherwise prefectly clean URL. Here's an example:

GOOD:mysite.com/albumname/subalbumname/imagename.jpg.html
BAD:mysite.com/albumname/subalbumname/imagename.jpg.html/?g2_enterAlbum=0

Is the additional "/?g2_enterAlbum=0" string really enough to cause problems with indexing the site? Thanks

[tedster]

Those are two different urls. If they resolve to the same content, then Google will often filter out one or the other from search results. If there are many such examples of multiple urls for the same content, then bigger troubles may begin.

[ichthyous]

No, you misunderstood...the first URL is generated by one theme of the program, and the second type of URL is generated by another...you can switch back and forth between themes to change the look of the website. They aren't two URLS that will ever appear on the site at the same time so duplicate content is not so much a problem. My question is is the 2nd URL as SE friendly? There isn't a huge difference between the two, but Google is so skittish these days about indexing sites...

[g1smd]

If the link to the alternative URL can be seen by bots then the content returned for that URL will be indexed by them.

If the content at that URL is the same as the content returned for some other URL, then you do have duplicate content and you will have a lot of problems.

Every URL that returns content and a "200 OK" HTTP response gets indexed. Your job is to only allow one URL for each piece of content.

[g1smd]

You haven't got to just worry about internal linking exposing additional URLs for the same content.

What if one of your users likes a page of content on your site, and links to it, and then another user (using a different theme) also likes that page, and uses the URL in their browser URL bar to cut and paste a link to your page from/on their own web site?

You now have two incoming links that return the same content, but using two different URLs for that content. Both will be indexed. One will then get at least partially filtered, taking its PR with it.

You need the site to return "200 OK" for one URL, and either a 301 redirect for all other URLs, or a noindex meta tag. You must keep all of the alternative URL copies out of the index.

[caines]

I am also setting up a gallery 2 gallery. When you set it up each piece of content does only have 1 URL for it as you can only run 1 theme once you have settled on your choice. The Url however takes the form mysite.com/gallery/main.php?g2_id=#*$! for example. It is changed to the more search engine friendly form of mysite.com/gallery/main.php/abc/xxx.jpg.html for example, using mod-rewrite or php pathinfo. Is it necessary do you think to have the re-write - will the original type of file name really cause google issues? I have been told by the developers google does not actually see the "?g2_id=" part it just see's the %itemid%. My concern is that. If you re-write to the "friendly" url you will end up with two url's for the same content but Google should never see the second url - as the page will always appear as
mysite.com/gallery/xyz/abc.jpg.html for example but if you did type in it's original item id directly you would be taken to the abc.jpg.html page.

I would really appreciate advice on the best way to proceed as I don't want to create bigger problems for myself by trying to correct a smaller one! :-) Thanks.

[ichthyous]

g1smd and tedster. I think you are both misunderstanding what we're asking. The duplicate content issue you mention isn't the case here because the program only allows you to use one theme at a time. It MIGHT happen if you switch back and forth bewteen themes after your site is up and running...but nobody would really need to do that. My question was whether URL #1 is safer than URL#2. One theme I have tried produced the first type of URL...very nice and clean. The second theme, which I plan to use, produces the second kind of URL with the extra variables appended to the end. As Caines mentioned, some people on the Gallery site claim that the extra "?g2_enterAlbum=0" won't be noticed by Google, but I don't see how that can be the case since it's in all the URLs. Caines-->the posts I read on Gallery's forum claimed that the extra variables were only added when you are in admin mode, and go away when you are in guest mode...which means that guests browsing your site don't see them. However, I get the extra variables in both modes and I am sure Google will see them. Test your gallery by viewing the URLS in guest mode...if they disappear then you're fine. Let me know which theme you're using too, thanks

[g1smd]

I assumed that the theme was something that the user browsing the site could select.

If that was the case, then that would always expose alternative URLs to the outside world.

[ichthyous]

Oh, i see...no that's not the case...the theme is selected on the backend via the admin panel and it becomes the "look" of the site. Some themes are designed by users and shared with other users. The most basic themes that comes with gallery seem to have the SE friendly URL issue down cold...but that's not the case with the user contributed themes. So do you think that the extra variables will hurt indexing? It's not much additional info, but perhaps Googlebot is shy of any dynamic content these days, especially on new sites or ones with low PR?

[caines]

ichthyous, I would contact the theme developer. The apache mod_rewrite fuction should be able to produce the first "good" type of url regardless of the theme - which should mostly be a matter of changes to the css.

My question now that I have finally gotten apache mod rewrite working correctly as I had a multisite install, is do you or anyone else know the implications, if any of using mod_rewrite to make the urls "nice". Will google index the pages now? I've heard some people say yes and others say no... and I'm totally confused now :)

[daveVk]

The cleanest way is to not include any theme identification in the url, but rather send the user a cookie containing the theme. On recieving a requist the page is themed according to cookie recieved not the url. If the software you are using supports this option use it. This will avoid duplicate content concerns.

[ichthyous]

Again, the theme is something that is implemented on the backened, not something selectable on the front end by the user like a skin. I did more reading and found that the extra parameters are session IDs. The app supposedly recognizes spiders and gives the spiders copies without session IDs, so only we can see them. But when I spidered my pages using Poodle Predictor it saw all of the session IDs. I am going to post a question on that at the Gallery forum and see what they say.

[daveVk]

The same goes for session ids, uses cookies if possible.