www.widgets.com vs www.widgets.com/index.asp

[woop01]

I found something I really didn't expect this morning. When I checked my site www.widgets.com it is still a PR4 but www.widgets.com/index.asp?souce=[referer] (the exact same page) is a PR0. Also about half a dozen PR4 and PR5 sites that link to www.widgets.com/index.asp?source=[referer] don't show up in a "link:" check on Google. The only links that show up are links from sites that link directly to www.widgets.com. Obviously they're the same page but for some reason, Google isn't picking that up.

Is there a work around for this problem? I really thought that Google would know that widgets.com and widgets.com/index.asp are the same page.

[John_Caius]

Has Google spidered the index.asp page?

[takagi]

> really thought that Google would know that widgets.com and widgets.com/index.asp are the same page.

That is not the point. The pages

www.widgets.com/index.asp?source=123 www.widgets.com/index.asp?source=456 www.widgets.com/index.asp

are 3 different pages for Google. Each with a PR, back links, etc.

[woop01]

Yes. According to the cache www.widgets.com was spidred at 3/11/2003 3:18:28 PM and www.widgets.com/index.asp was spidered at 3/19/2003 6:56:04 AM.

Takagi, thanks for the input. Do you know of a work around that would allow links to www.widgets.com/index.asp to count as links to www.widgets.com under Google?

[buckworks]

Tracking codes or other variables can get in the way of SEO, because your link pop gets split between variant URLs.

I've seen more than one search engine treat URLs with assorted variables as if they were separate pages. Sometimes the SE's seem to figure out that it's the same page being pointed to, but you can't depend on that.

The only answer I know is to try to keep variant URLs from getting into circulation in the first place.

[takagi]

In ASP it is also possible to see the referer using Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER"). There are a few problems (like Norton's firewall or caching by ISPs like AOL). For the time being you could remain the current links and compare it with the HTTP_REFERER to find out what you would miss when you cancel the current linking system.