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BV - SEO and Internal Linking
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Omer
#1 Posted : Monday, August 11, 2008 7:58:03 PM(UTC)
Omer

Rank: Member

Joined: 2/3/2007(UTC)
Posts: 100
mysite.com/ - www.mysite.com/ - mysite.com/Default.aspx. All of those pages go to Home page but bots will certainly treat them as different URLs. As a result a significant amount of the PageRank is shared to duplicates instead of the site content. I realized that when I looked at the PR for 'www.mysite.com' and 'www.mysite.com/Default.aspx'.

1- 'mysite.com/' and 'www.mysite.com/' can be handled with a re-direct, which should be done before the store is launched. First, I think BV should come out with the .htaccess redirect file 'out of the box' to prevent any duplicate content issues by the bots, especially Google. Or at least, the start up guide should include this under 'necessary update' and should show how to do it.

2- BV comes with 'www.mysite.com/Default.aspx' pointers(links) 'out of the box'. That creates duplicate content issues. For example, breadcrumbs trail point to '/Default.aspx'. Also, initial templates 'Header' and 'Footer' logo and 'home page' links point to '/Default.aspx' version. You can choose what version of 'home page' under 'Options/General Settings' but that is not communicated when you buy the software. Besides, breadcrumbs, logo and any other linking to 'home page' should point to 'www.mysite.com/' only. Why? Because inbound links from other sites will show 'www.mysite.com/', not '../Default.aspx'.

So, in the light of that, I made a change to 'CategoryBreadCrumbTrail.ascx.vb' pointing to 'www.mysite.com/' instead of 'www.mysite.com/Default.aspx'. Also changed all other links showing the same and removed all '/Default.aspx' pointers.

Question: I do not know ASP.NET. I am just finding my way luckily I guess. My question is that does my update create any problems in any part of my site? I did not notice anything yet but would like to know from the experts here.

Thank you for any answer in advance.
Noah
#2 Posted : Tuesday, August 12, 2008 9:31:03 AM(UTC)
Noah

Rank: Member

Joined: 11/6/2003(UTC)
Posts: 1,903
A lot of merchants have more than just a store.

The homepage of their site may be www.site.com/homepage.aspx while the main link to the store may be www.site.com/default.aspx and a call to the domain with no www and no page specified would point to a global sitemap page.

Some just have a store and nothing else. So BV is quite flexible the way it works.

An htaccess file comes from apache not Microsoft. There are many ways to handle URL's. We provide ISAPI_Rewrite on all of our servers for our clients to use and you can create all kinds of rules including what you have above as well as many many more.

I'm not sure of all the changes you made, or what effects they may have on the site, (we don't do the redirects at the BV level, but at the IIS level) so you will have to test test test. Watch out for the mini search control, that will have issues depending on how you do it.
Noah
Omer
#3 Posted : Tuesday, August 12, 2008 8:14:13 PM(UTC)
Omer

Rank: Member

Joined: 2/3/2007(UTC)
Posts: 100
I agree that BV is very flexible but 'duplicate home page' is critical in SEO. There should be only 1 type of home page link 'out of the box', which should be 'www.mysite.com/'. BV internal linking is set up in a way that all internal pages point to 'www.mysite.com/Default.aspx', which causes all the juice going to the duplicate of 'www.mysite.com/', not the site content. A general example: it is like having $50 in your pocket. You might put $40 in your left pocket and $10 in the other one. Just like PR, if the duplicate home page(Default.aspx) is getting all the juice from PR (becasue of the breadcrumbs... etc. internal links), then the site content will not get the real force of the PageRank. Lots of articles written about it and this is a very important step in SEO. In that sense, being flexible does not add any value here knowing that the right thing to do is to include only one version of the home page link. The sites that you mentioned also should be corrected as well for them to be able to get the most of their search engine capabilities.

You are right that 'htaccess' file comes from apache not Microsoft. I disagree with the fact that it should not be included under a start up guide as a suggestion at least. For example; most of the site owners have no idea what 'mysite.com' and 'www.mysite.com/' means, and what kind of effect it might have with search engines. While spending a lot of money to SEO campaigns, those little issues will eat up all the efforts. Just a few lines of 301 redirect code to prevent a canonical URL issue at the start of a website should not be a problem. Actually, that would add more value to BV product in terms of SEO.

I am still testing my site n terms of the change. Error log does not show anything. Checkout - Search and all other functions are working properly. I think that will work but I will take your advise and will continue to test.
Omer
#4 Posted : Tuesday, August 12, 2008 8:38:40 PM(UTC)
Omer

Rank: Member

Joined: 2/3/2007(UTC)
Posts: 100
Just to prove my point, I will take the featured sites from BV Home page.

UVEX - http://www.uvexsports.com/ with a PageRank is 5. Their secondary page '../Default.aspx' has PageRank 0(zero). (I didnt include the actual link to Default.aspx version here so they don't get a PR for their duplicate). This is an optimized site.

KNOWLEDGE ADVENTURE, however, is problematic
http://www.knowledgeadventure.com/ with a PageRank 6. Now check that out '.../Default.aspx', which has a PageRank 6 too. This is out of the box. PR is flowing to Default.aspx while that PR could actually add more emphasis to the site content.
Omer
#5 Posted : Sunday, August 17, 2008 4:21:25 PM(UTC)
Omer

Rank: Member

Joined: 2/3/2007(UTC)
Posts: 100
For the ones who are following this post... It seems like there is no problem and everything is working properly. So, here is a guide to make things better in BV regarding SEO. This is for the site owners who also do their own SEO and programming. Yeah, small businesses suffer when it comes to spending money for advertising and SEO. For experts, probably you already know all these :-)

1- 301 redirect from 'mysite.com/' to 'www.mysite.com/'. Make sure to use 'www.mysite.com/' for all your links pointing to your home page, internal or external. This will prevent canonical issues.

2- Make a change in 'CategoryBreadCrumbTrail.ascx.vb'. Change '~/Default.aspx' to 'http://www.mysite.com/'. This will change the breadcrumbs trail home page link from '~/Default.aspx' to 'www.mysite.com/'. So it will turn into an absolute link to the home page from all sub-categories, products... etc. That will stop the automatic linking to Default.aspx.

3- If you just modified the header from another template in BV, then it will have the logo link pointing to '~/Default.aspx'. First, change the 'header.ascx.vb'. Remove all the coding there pointing to '~/Default.aspx'. Do the same for the footer if you have any links the same way. Then place an absolute link in header with your logo img to your home page, or a better one would be a text link with your niche word along with your logo.

By doing all these, you will stop all incoming links to Default.aspx. So it won't take any ranking. It will be there but will not have an effect. As far as I read online, you can also do a rewrite from Default.aspx to www.mysite.aspx but that really does not matter if you do not have any links coming to Default.aspx. So, you will stop wasting your PageRank and reinforce your content. A better ranking should follow within 1-2 months. At least I hope it will for my site :-)
Andy Miller
#6 Posted : Sunday, August 17, 2008 4:50:46 PM(UTC)
Andy Miller

Rank: Member

Joined: 11/5/2003(UTC)
Posts: 2,136

Was thanked: 1 time(s) in 1 post(s)
Omer,

Great advice.

This is probably obvious to readers also, but #1 can also be stated "choose either mysite.com or www.mysite.com and then use a 301 redirect to the one you choose (i.e. redirect www.mysite.com to mysite.com or mysite.com to www.mysite.com)". Using the "www." format does not increase your page rank, using either one consistently does.

Also "~/" will automatically resolve to the correct url (www.mysite.com/ or mysite.com/) once you have the 301 redirect from #1 in place.
Andy Miller
Structured Solutions

Shipper 3 - High Velocity Shipment Processing
Marcus
#7 Posted : Monday, August 18, 2008 10:27:38 AM(UTC)
Marcus

Rank: Member

Joined: 11/5/2003(UTC)
Posts: 1,786
If you want to do a 301 redirect you can use this sample code. It goes in the global.asax file in the Application_BeginRequest section:

Code:


Protected Sub Application_BeginRequest(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)


' Start New 301 redirect code
If HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.ToString().ToLower().Contains("http://MyDomain.com") Then
HttpContext.Current.Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently"
HttpContext.Current.Response.AddHeader("Location", _
Request.Url.ToString().ToLower().Replace("http://MyDomain.com", _
"http://www.MyDomain.com"))
End If
' End New 301 redirect code

' Existing Code below this line
Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = New System.Globalization.CultureInfo(BVSoftware.Bvc5.Core.WebAppSettings.SiteCultureCode)
Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = New System.Globalization.CultureInfo(BVSoftware.Bvc5.Core.WebAppSettings.SiteCultureCode)
End Sub



Make sure you replace "MyDomain.com" with the name of your domain. This will redirect requests to http://mydomain.com to http://www.mydomain.com. You can adjust the code to do the reverse and add another line to change "/default.aspx" to "/" if you like.
jvmaloley
#8 Posted : Tuesday, August 19, 2008 1:53:24 AM(UTC)
jvmaloley

Rank: Member

Joined: 2/26/2007(UTC)
Posts: 57
Can you guys give me an opinion on why you think Google gives the subpages of http://www.vendingmachinesworldwide.com/ a pagerank 2 lower than the homepage? I think I understand why but I just wanted to know what you guys think causes this. Also why some of the subpages do not even have a pagerank?
Tafel1
#9 Posted : Tuesday, August 19, 2008 11:12:54 AM(UTC)
Tafel1

Rank: Member

Joined: 1/15/2008(UTC)
Posts: 58
Thanks for the tip Omer,
I had already done the header and footer, but didn't know what to do about the Breadcrumbs

As far as links and Google.
From what little certainty I have gathered off the net. Google bases specific page rank, by how many links are pointed to it.

If you just have a few links on your own site pointing to it, then I doubt it would even measure a higher rank.
Omer
#10 Posted : Tuesday, August 19, 2008 7:16:25 PM(UTC)
Omer

Rank: Member

Joined: 2/3/2007(UTC)
Posts: 100
Tafel,
You need to find 'CategoryBreadCrumbTrail.ascx.vb' under Controls file in BVModules. Then find the following code(it stars line77 in my file, dont
know if it is the same line number in your version of BV):

Dim m As New HyperLink
m.CssClass = "home"
m.ToolTip = Content.SiteTerms.GetTerm("Home")
m.Text = Content.SiteTerms.GetTerm("Home")
m.NavigateUrl = Me.Page.ResolveUrl("~/Default.aspx")
m.EnableViewState = False
Me.TrailPlaceholder.Controls.Add(m)
Me.TrailPlaceholder.Controls.Add(New LiteralControl("<span class=""spacer"">" & _Spacer & "</span>"))

Now see that "~/Default.aspx" ın the middle? You can just remove 'Default.aspx' from there and leave '~/' the same. DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING ELSE
or you will suffer as I did. lol... Once you run the webpage
after you make the change, you will see breadcrumbs will not show Default.aspx but will show 'www.mysite.com/' only. Or you can change it to an
absolute link like I did. I removed '~/Default.aspx' and changed it to 'http://www.mysite.com/'. It is working properly for me. I think making it absolute is better. Just my opinion.
Relative and absolute linking work the same way.

I also changed my breadcrumbs trail 'home' link with an anchor text for my niche word. You can do that
under Options/Site Terms to something like 'my niche word home'. This will help pointing all home page links with your niche word.
This is a very small change though, don't expect getting ranked for your niche word right away but will help in the long run. Hope this helps.

jvmaloley,
Here is a well-known article to start understanding about PageRank
http://www.webworkshop.net/pagerank.html

It gives an insight on PageRank. As you start reading it, you will get familiar with SEO and PageRank. There are much better resources online
for PageRank but I think this article will explain what it is in essence.
jvmaloley
#11 Posted : Wednesday, August 20, 2008 10:20:29 PM(UTC)
jvmaloley

Rank: Member

Joined: 2/26/2007(UTC)
Posts: 57
Thanks Omer is this 301 redirect an "inbound redirect"? I know that a overuse/misuse of a 301 would be a total annihilation @ Google.
jvmaloley
#12 Posted : Saturday, August 23, 2008 9:53:12 PM(UTC)
jvmaloley

Rank: Member

Joined: 2/26/2007(UTC)
Posts: 57
I did some research this 301 redirect is the one and only one for SEO. No 301 redirects to different websites/pages should be done though Google hates this. You should use a 404 if you're doing this. Under options in the bvcommerce admin then general settings should I change the "Site Home Page File Name:" also or just leave it as default.aspx?
jvmaloley
#13 Posted : Monday, August 25, 2008 10:33:50 PM(UTC)
jvmaloley

Rank: Member

Joined: 2/26/2007(UTC)
Posts: 57
Can someone help? This is the code I edit in the CategoryBreadCrumbTrail.ascx.vb file correct?

Dim m As New HyperLink
m.CssClass = "home"
m.ToolTip = Content.SiteTerms.GetTerm("Home")
m.Text = Content.SiteTerms.GetTerm("Home")
m.NavigateUrl = Me.Page.ResolveUrl("http://www.mywebsite.com/")
m.EnableViewState = False
Me.TrailPlaceholder.Controls.Add(m)
Me.TrailPlaceholder.Controls.Add(New LiteralControl("<span class=""spacer"">" & _Spacer & "</span>"))

If so I did this and I still have default.aspx and my header and footer do not even have any default.aspx.
jvmaloley
#14 Posted : Wednesday, August 27, 2008 11:36:01 PM(UTC)
jvmaloley

Rank: Member

Joined: 2/26/2007(UTC)
Posts: 57
Ok I figured my problem out I was looking in the wrong header and footer files in my theme to edit. If you are following this post don't forget to edit your home url in your sitemap.aspx file. Omer I noticed you didn't do this your home link in your sitemap still points to /default.aspx. This would complete all your links back to your homepage.
HPros
#15 Posted : Thursday, November 4, 2010 10:08:17 PM(UTC)
HPros

Rank: Member

Joined: 1/30/2008(UTC)
Posts: 215
Omer, 2 years plus later, thank you.
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