Forum Moderators: phranque
Problem: Because of the keyword density inadvertently throughout our shipping&returns page, policies, conditions etc - we are ranking much higher than our actual product/category pages. Several big ecom sites redirect users to their main page with the welcome screen and everything else fuzzy and warm. I've seen this quite often - as obviously, they would prefer to land you on their main resource center.
Resolution: ? If we do mod rewrite rules like this:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^shipping(.*) [example.com...] [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^links(.*) [examples.com...] [R=301,L]
</IfModule>
arne't search engines also going to follow these links back to our main page and de-rank our listings or view this as dup content etc? What is the best way to redirect a user from a NON content quality page to the actual store. We have NO intention in blackhat SEO methods of redirecting users from our articles of interest to our products, we only want to redirect people to our store away from the 'fluff' pages.
NEED INPUT! THANKS!
S
I think you might be wrong here. Your good ranking for these pages is probably caused by the fact that you link to them on most, or every page of the site. That way they seem very important to the SE's.
As to the rewrite rule:
What you suggest is not a good solution, because you users will not be able to view those pages! It will be just like taking them down. The dupe issues are of course also there, on top of that.
I would suggest linking to these pages with a link generated by a javascript in an external javascript include file in stead. Then, have one or two places from where a user can also find them in case they don't have javascript enabled. That is, make a real link somewhere in your checkout process and in your site map.
That should solve your problem. The rewrites will just be annoyances and cosmetics - they will not solve the basic problem which is that those pages rank better than you want them to do. Changing linking structure on the site is the way to fix it. Anyway:
>> How do the 'big boys' do it?
If you come from a Search Engine results page and go straight to one of these pages, then redirect. Ie:
Insert some lines topmost in your rewrite block that tests if the referrer is a search engine results page. Perhaps something like this will do the trick:
----------------------------
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERRER} google [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERRER} yahoo [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERRER} msn [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERRER} ask [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERRER} another-search-engine [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERRER} another-search-engine [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERRER} another-search-engine [NC]
RewriteRule ^shipping(.*) http://www.example.com [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^links(.*) http://www.example.com [R=301,L]
----------------------------
Note: The [OR] part of [NC,OR] should not be included in the final test. This will make the rewrite rule fail.
Thanks for your reply!
S
Also, they are the only files with a .php ending instead of .php&sdflkajs;dlfkjlasdlkj_23423 etc
S
Good idea. It should do exactly that.
>> SO you mention a java script - what is better, the rewrite rule you mention or the jscript?
The rewirte rule. I suggested the JS link because i thought (wrong) that you had links to those pages on all other pages. A link written by JS in stead of in HTML can sometimes overcome this, so that those pages don't get too much "authority".
