Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
We bealive Google has a difficult time in categorizing us: are we portal, directory, forum etc.
To help 'em we have decided to move big independent parts to new subdomains instead subfolders, and not mix them anymore on same domain.
Also we decided to start using mod rewrite and create static pages.
Here's what we have done:
1. created fully working subdomain widgets.example.com
2. we redirected example.com/widgets/ to widgets.example.com using .htaccess
example.com/widgets/index.php?cat=5
to
widgets.example.com/index.php?cat=5
3. removed example.com/widgets/ subdirectory
4. rewrote script to use static pages with mod rewrite
(but of course it still works if used as dynamic url)
widgets.example.com/index.php?cat=5
to
widgets.example.com/europe/
4. to avioid duplicate content we set META "noindex, follow" in head of all dynamic pages (because redirected dynamic page have static links inside)
5. created sitemap for static pages and submited them in Webmaster tool
This operation has been successful, BUT... something is terribly wrong.
Google has stopped indexing our site in ammount it has prior to this "operation".
Old pages example.com/widgets/ are disappearing from SERP, as they should. But new are buried deep on 5th page.
And amount of visitors has halfed.
All statistics are rapidly dropping.
Questions:
1. PR for new subdomain is gray. How long does it take for GG to asign PR for pages on new subdomain?
2. Will META "noindex, follow" kill PR or will it transfer some value of PR from dymnamic (example.com/widgets/index.php?cat=5) to static pages (widgets.example.com/europe/)?
3. Does it hurt (google serp) to have mix of static and dynamic pages on same subdomain
4. Does it hurt (to stop duplicating content)
assigning to all dynamic pages META "noindex, follow"
and assigning to all static pages META "index, follow"
5. Do you have any other advice for us?
Help would be appreciated.
[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 6:21 pm (utc) on Jan. 26, 2008]
[edit reason] removed specifics [/edit]
2. we redirected example.com/widgets/ to widgets.example.com using .htaccess
example.com/widgets/index.php?cat=5
to
widgets.example.com/index.php?cat=53. removed example.com/widgets/ subdirectory
4. rewrote script to use static pages with mod rewrite
(but of course it still works if used as dynamic url)
widgets.example.com/index.php?cat=5
to
widgets.example.com/europe/
It does not appear you have transferred any 'weight' to the new static pages...
If the above is an accurate account of what is happening you need to adjust your redirect to send visitors directly to widgets.example.com/europe/ rather than widgets.example.com/index.php?cat=5.
What you have done is redirected (passed weight of) example.com/widgets/index.php?cat=5 to widgets.example.com/index.php?cat=5, and then noindexed those pages, effectively removing all your pages with 'transferred weight' from the SERPs.
A better plan is to redirect example.com/widgets/index.php?cat=5 DIRECTLY to widgets.example.com/europe/ AND redirect widgets.example.com/index.php?cat=5 to widgets.example.com/europe/. (Use THE_REQUEST to avoid an infinite loop.)
Keep in mind all redirects should point directly to the final location using only 1 redirect or there will be no 'passed weight' from the links / age / history of original pages.
DO NOT redirect example.com/widgets/index.php?cat=5 to widgets.example.com/index.php?cat=5 then to widgets.example.com/europe/... Redirect to the final location with the first redirect and you should see better results.
Justin
<added>
I would also redirect example.com/widgets/ subdirectory to widgets.example.com/europe/ rather than just removing them if possible.
</added>
Yap, but how?
Now 301 redirects using .htaccess for example.com/widgets/... to widgets.example.com/...
rewriteRule ^widgets/(.*)$ [widgets.example.com...] [R=301,L]
I can use Meta Refresh Tag w/ redirection (on each old dymanamic page to assign to new static) but that is penalized by search engines
other questions were:
1. PR for new subdomain is gray. How long does it take for GG to asign PR for pages on new subdomain?
3. Does it hurt (google serp) to have mix of static and dynamic pages on same subdomain
4. Does it hurt (to stop duplicating content)
assigning to all dynamic pages META "noindex, follow"
and assigning to all static pages META "index, follow"
$uri="http://widgets.example.com/$the_new/$location/";
header("HTTP/1.0 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location: $uri");
Remember: Remove your redirects to widgets.example.com/index.php?cat=5 from your htaccess file. A php redirect is the direct equivalent to an htaccess redirect, meaning it will be 'seen' and 'interpreted' the same way by SEs.
1. PR for new subdomain is gray. How long does it take for GG to asign PR for pages on new subdomain?
No telling.
It will change visibly when Google updates PR again.
Your guess is as good as anyone else's as to when it will be.
Just because you cannot see it does not mean it is not applied... Internal (to Google) PR is calculated on an ongoing basis. What we can see is 'held back' for an indefinite period of time.
3. Does it hurt (google serp) to have mix of static and dynamic pages on same subdomain.
Not to my knowledge.
4. Does it hurt (to stop duplicating content)
assigning to all dynamic pages META "noindex, follow"
and assigning to all static pages META "index, follow"
No, it's better than having duplicates, and by noindexing some pages you let SEs know you are not trying to rank multiple duplicate pages. I have actually noindexed large sections of sites and left only the 'index' pages of each section in the results before and done fairly well for searches.
Justin
Edited: Punctuation, minor additions.
Based on requested url php should create individual header for each page
example.com/widgets/index.php?cat=5&subcat=10
=>
$uri="http://widgets.example.com/europe/france/";
header("HTTP/1.0 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location: $uri");
and redirect 301 without using .htaccess and its perfectly 'legal' Google wise.
Thanks, You'we helped a lot for all answers.
Thanks WW!
