Question Mark In URL??
-
So I am looking at a site for a client, and I think I already have my answer, but wanted to check with you guys.
First off the site is in FLASH and HTML. I told the client to dump the flash site, but she isn't willing right now.
So the URLS are generated like this.
Flash:
http://www.mysite.com/#/page/7ca2/wedding-pricing/
HTML:
http://www.mysite.com/?/page/7ca2/wedding-pricing/
checking the site in Google with a site:mysite, none of the interior pages are indexed at all.
So that is telling me that Google is pretty much ignoring everything past the # or ?.
Is that correct?
My recommendation is to dump the flash site and redo the URLS in a SEo friendly format.
-
I think you would have to turn flash off to see it on a desktop.
But yes, my recommendation is the dump the flash version, keep the HTML version and restructure the URLS. Only then does it make sense to start SEO. (thought you could argue that is SEO)
-
Well maybe a mobile version. But from the desktop I can't seem to get to it. Anyway if the site can be recreated in HTML with the same look and functionality, why does she want the Flash site? Mention the speed factor to her as well... Site takes far too long to load.
-
I thought it was a full flash site also until I pulled it up on my IPAD. There is a full html version there.
-
Jesse's right. AS much as your client doens't want to upgrade and rework the entire site (build an equivalent in HTML or PHP), there isn't much you can do. This is a full FLASH site, locked SWF and Google isn't going to crawl or index any of the content or information.
You could do a few other things to help the business on a local level:
1. Build up all the social profiles and media needed to support Google local search. Social media, Google+, FB and Twitter sould be a good start. Even a LinkedIn profile to support the company and business.
2. Add in a WORDPRESS customization feature to the site, and build up a blog for content marketing and development. Work to create content around each of these categories and redirect users back to the company site. You don't have specific landing page URL's to use and optimize, but it's a cost effective start if they are unwilling to bend on going the route that will benefit them the most.
I've had clients like this and it's the hardest thing to tell them everything they have or are doing is wrong on many levels. It's probably the most sensitive area when dealing with a client you don't want to upset
Tough road ahead for sure.Cheers!
-
You know I may have been partially wrong.. Some of the pages are being indexed and text as well. It's certainly not doing any favors though and the navigation is rough to begin with. I can barely see the pages in the nav bar.. Maybe tell your client that and it could help.
But looking at this shows me that not only does the question mark not matter (to answer your original question) but there is a bit of crawling going on:
-
Well the HTML site is redirecting to the flash site as far as I can tell. And the URLs are all goofed up and silly. Oof. You got your work cut out for you here, especially if the client is unwilling to change as you're describing.
Anyway because there is nothing but a Flash site here, Google is not crawling it and it's not being indexed from what I can tell. I grabbed a couple strings of text and ran a search for them and the site didn't show up. The homepage is indexed, but it will never appear in the desired SERPs as you already well know...
Your client would really hate me because I'd be trying to convince them to change their entire company name. I realize this is a localized business but there are 3 different "sweetlightstudio.com" websites that all look the same to me. Now I know there are cities at the end of each one but I guarantee you a large portion of potential customers get confused and end up on the wrong site and then say "wait I don't live in San Francisco what the heck is this" and leave.
Well good luck with this one! Ha!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
I'm doing a crawl analysis for a website and finding all these duplicate URLs with "null" being added to them and have no clue what could be causing this.
Does anyone know what could be causing this? Our dev team thinks it's caused by mobile pages they created a while ago but it is adding 1000's of additional URLs to the crawl report and being indexed by Google. They don't see it as a priority but I believe these could be very harmful to our site. examples from URL string:
Web Design | | julianne.amann
uruguay-argentina-chilenullnull/days
rainforests-volcanoes-wildlifenullnull/reviews
of-eastern-europenullnullnullnull/hotels0 -
Analytics year to year comparisons when Url extensions change?
We manage a website which we recently changed from Drupal to Word Press. In the change, we dropped a small part of the previous URLs - the end extension - .php For example /attractions-rates.php is now
Web Design | | Teamzig
/attractions-rates with no .php. We eliminated the .php to make the URL simpler. How is it possible (and easiest) to do a year to year comparison as Google sees the pages as different? They didn't for the first 8 days (we could see both) but now the pages with the .php extension shows zeros. The content of the page is exactly the same only the .php is different. We know we can manually go back to last year's reports and do side by side but that is time consuming. Hoping there is a filter or process we can use to gen a report? Thanks, Jim0 -
Is it ok to redirect an old URL to new URL with anchor tag?
Ex. OLD URL - http://www.mysite.com/shoes/red/description NEW URL - http://www.mysite.com/shoes/red#desc Thanks in advance!
Web Design | | esiow20130 -
A Not Linked Page Question
Hello, I have a page for opening an account in my website, this page is not accessible from my website menu, the only way to reach this page if you have the URL, I send the URL for specific users I want them to open an account in my system. I have two questions regarding this: does this harm or cause damages to my website SEO ? blocking this page in Robots.txt will cause any issue/will help ? waiting for your answer.
Web Design | | JonsonSwartz
Thanks in advance,
Joni.0 -
Sitemap Question - Very Old Ecommerce Site, Never Used A Map
I help manage a family website, that has about 10,000 products... It was top ranked since 1996, then got smacked by Penguin and recovered but its still receiving only a fraction of the natural traffic it used to get. Something we have never used... Is a sitemap. I'm curious if anyone knows reliable software that will generate a sitemap? My cart is custom built, website uses html pages across the board. Dynamic content and parameters are set up properly, onsite seo is in the excellent range. The only thing that I haven't been utilizing is a sitemap. Because the cart was hand built, it would a huge convenience to use a lightweight program thats compatible with any website, has parameter settings, exclusions and anything else useful to negate any duplicate content. I have a few highly dynamic pages as well... If anyone knows a product or a possible solution, it would be much appreciated. Working it up myself would be very time consuming. Thx
Web Design | | Southbay_Carnivorous_Plants0 -
Totally flat URL structure
Hi Mozzers! I've just been viewing a website with a flat URL structure - the site has a definite structure - with various sections - and yet the URL structure doesn't reflect this... The developer tells me this is purely for SEO purposes! Would be interested in your thoughts...
Web Design | | McTaggart0 -
Does Google count the domain name in its 115-character "ideal" URL length?
I've been following various threads having to do with URL length and Google's happiness therewith and have yet to find an answer to the question posed in the title. Some answers and discussions have come close, but none I've found have addressed this with any specificity. Here are four hypothetical URLs of varying lengths and configurations: EXAMPLE ONE:
Web Design | | RScime25
my-big-widgets-are-the-best-widgets-in-the-world-and-come-in-many-vibrant-and-unique-colors-and-configurations.html (115 characters) EXAMPLE TWO: sample.com/my-big-widgets-are-the-best-widgets-in-the-world-and-come-in-many-vibrant-and-unique-colors-and-configurations.html (126 characters) EXAMPLE THREE: www.sample.com/my-big-widgets-are-the-best-widgets-in-the-world-and-come-in-many-vibrant-and-unique-colors-and-configurations.html (130 characters) EXAMPLE FOUR: http://www.sample.com/my-big-widgets-are-the-best-widgets-in-the-world-and-come-in-many-vibrant-and-unique-colors-and-configurations.html (137 characters) Assuming the examples contain appropriate keywords and are linked to appropriate anchor text (etc.,) how would Google look upon each? All I've been able to garner thus far is that URLs should be as short as possible while still containing and contextualizing keywords. I have 500+ URLs to review for the company I work for and could use some guidance; yes, I know I should test, but testing is problematical to the extreme; I look to the collective/accumulated wisdom of the MOZVerse for help. Thanks.1 -
Pin It Button, Too Many Links, & a Javascript question...
One of the sites I work for has some massive on-page link problems. We've been trying to come up with workarounds to lower the amount of links without making drastic changes to the page design and trying to stay within SEO best practices. We had originally considered the NoFollow route a few months back but that's not viable. We changed around some image and text links so they were wrapped together as one link instead of being two links to the same place. We're currently running tests on some pages to see how else to handle the issue. What has me stumped now though is that the damned Pinterest Pin Button counts as an external link and we've added it to every image in our galleries. Originally we found that having a single Pin It button on a page was pulling incorrect images and not listing every possible image on the page... so to make sure that a visitor can pin the exact picture they want, we added the button to everything. We've been seeing a huge uptick in Pinterest traffic so we're definitely happy with that and don't want to get rid of the button. But if we have 300 pictures (which are all links) on a page with Pin It buttons (yet more links) we then have 600+ links on the page. Here's an example page: http://www.fauxpanels.com/portfolio-regency.php When talking with one of my coders, he suggested some form of javascript might be capable of making the button into an event instead of a link and that could be a way to keep the Pin It button while lowering on-page links. I'm honestly not sure how that would work, whether Google would still count it as a link, or whether that is some form of blackhat cloaking technique we should be wary of. Do any of you have experience with similar issues/tactics that you could help me with here? Thanks. TL;DR Too many on page links. Coder suggests javascript "alchemy" to turn lead into gold button links into events. Would this lower links? Or is it bad? Form of Cloaking?
Web Design | | MikeRoberts0