Googlebot came and requested my new files but.........Please help! 1

[JoJoH]

Hi all,

I've just checked my log files, it showed that Google last visited on the 7-20-03 and he requested my new pages at last! But.... everytime it comes, I have gazillion of questions in my mind...

1)The URLs of my site are dynamic... Say I have a page called: ww.mysite.com/catalog/shopping.asp, and that url will have parameters depends on the user's input:
ww.mysite.com/catalog/shopping.asp?catalog=shoes
OR
ww.mysite.com/catalog/shopping.asp?catalog=handbags

Now in the log files, it shows that Google requested ww.mysite.com/catalog/shopping.asp, but without the parameter!!!

2)Since Google has requested my new pages like a few days ago, how come my listing in Google is still the title and content of my old, unoptimized site?

Please advice.

Thanks in advance!

JoJoH

http://www.jadeboutique.com

 

[ChrisHirst]

Hi JoJoH,

New URLs go into the Google database at whichever datacentre spidered your site, the Googleplex consists of 9 datacentres and when you run a search it will come from any one of those centres, Once a month (usually) all the datacentres are synchronised, this is the 'Google dance'. So your new urls will be added at the next update.

The Google Dancemaster

http://www.webworkshop.net/google_dance_tool.html

for pages that are called with a parameter make sure that the code can handle it, I always check the query string on entry and if it is empty set a default value.



Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?

 

[JoJoH]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the reply! Could you please explain briefly what you meant/how to do:

Quote: "for pages that are called with a parameter make sure that the code can handle it, I always check the query string on entry and if it is empty set a default value."

Thanks in advance for your help Chris!

JoJoH

http://www.jadeboutique.com

 

[ChrisHirst]

Hi JoJoH

If your pages use the query string or a form field to return a recordset for instance run a test to see what happens if the page is called direct ie:

products.asp?cat=widgets

is called with

products.asp and see if any error is generated.
In an ideal world you should allow for this and error check at the entry point eg:

dim category

if request.querystring("cat&quot = "" then
category = "widgets"
else
category = request.querystring("cat&quot
end if

category is then used in your SQL statements and is always going to be valid and your visitors aren't presented with.

ADODB.Field error '800a0bcd'
Either BOF or EOF is True, or the current record has been deleted. Requested operation requires a current record.
/products.asp, line xxx



Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?

 

[JoJoH]

Hi Chris!

Thanks for the reply! Got it! I have 2 more questions in my mind... I'm sorry Chris if I seem unresourceful... but I am very new to all these SEO Google things... whew am I glad to have you and this/other forums to help me!

1)Why does google just request ww.somesite.com/somepage.asp instead of ww.somesite.com/somepage.asp?cat=widgets ? Is this normal? As you could see in my site, every product page is generated dynamically, and I NEED Google to index the URL with the parameter...will it do that?


2)I've just visited the link you've showed me, although in my log files it showed that Google had requested my new files but in the Googledance ultiliy, it showed that Google's datacentre does not have any of those pages...

Please advice.

Thanks in advance for all your help1

JoJoH

http://www.jadeboutique.com

 

[ChrisHirst]

most times you can't actually figure out what Google is doing for several weeks, this last update seems to have put a lot of new features into the system, It may have been the referer or the changes at google that had removed the ? parameter prior to the first visit to a new URL.

The new URLs seem to take a few days to be loaded into the datacentres after being queued by the first visit, so you may not see the spider again for a few days,
I've just had the same, a 2 week old site was 'googled' 2 days ago (only the home page) so the URL will be queued, I don't expect to see any results until after the second visit and that may be another week away, In the mean time the site is getting about 12 hits a day from Gigablast and Scooter (AltaVista) has spidered the pages so I'm not concerned about it, Just sit back and have patience.
For now you have done all you can, The SEs are complex processes and everything takes a little time. One site I look after took 12 weeks to get Google really interested but now it's there every 2 days and the site was getting page one results (some tweaking needed. kick the Flash the client wanted off, I can show it's lost him traffic now ) So don't lose sleep it will happen, even the dynamic pages will get spidered eventually, may take a few weeks but it will happen.





Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?

 

[JoJoH]

Thank you Chris, I'll wait for a while and see what'll happen. Thanks again for all your help Chris!

JoJoH

http://www.jadeboutique.com