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leeshields
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Mar 8, 2003, 8:19 PM
Post #1 of 6
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Dead Listings / Search engines
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Hi all
Back again with more search engine madness! But more of an RM issue this time.
When you delete a listing, does the html get deleted, if is does (which I assume) will later properties fill in the empty numbers , or do they just get added at the end numerically?
My thinking is, if the search engine sees a specific listing, which is later removed, a client clicking on the link will just get a server error, which isnt good!
Is it feasable for you to add a function, which i should imagine is quite simple, to create a tiny html file with a 'sorry listing removed forwarding to search page' or something error and an auto redirect?
What do you think? can servers be setup to do that?
Any suggestions welcome
Lee
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Lee Shields
Apogee Technology
John R Hornsby
Adelante Properties
Villassist
Paul Withey Estate Agents
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Benjamin
Staff
Mar 9, 2003, 3:43 PM
Post #2 of 6
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Re: [leeshields] Dead Listings / Search engines
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Hey Lee,
Good question. When a listing is deleted, new listings are assigned that old listing's number.
> My thinking is, if the search engine sees a specific listing, which is later removed, a client clicking on the link will just get a server error, which isnt good!
True, but how do you uniquely identifying a listing - what's this being used for? Aren't you doing a search that's specific enough to only retrieve one result?
I'm curious to know in what sort of case this could be a problem. Post me a few details and I'll give it some thought :-)
Ben
interactivetools.com
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leeshields
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Mar 9, 2003, 4:00 PM
Post #3 of 6
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Re: [Benjamin] Dead Listings / Search engines
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Hi again Ben
Its my search engine thing again
forget RM searches, nothing to do with that. Links to the full listing page, so the SE can see all the links, so they scan them perhaps. ok so one listing is 'villa with sea view in Javea' ok then the SE sees it and ranks it etc.
someone hits the SE 2 weeks later and the property is sold, gone, deleted. they search for 'villa with sea view in Javea' (ok im clutching but its the principal!)
They get the detailed listing, eg http://www.villassist.com/varm/listings/l0033.html, then click on it
Its dead now, do they just get a server error?
Yes i know its a very obscure question (again! from me!) but just struck me thats all.
Bit of netiquett, but theres nothing more frustrating than dead links.
Lee
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Lee Shields
Apogee Technology
John R Hornsby
Adelante Properties
Villassist
Paul Withey Estate Agents
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stevec
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Mar 9, 2003, 6:33 PM
Post #4 of 6
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Re: [leeshields] Dead Listings / Search engines
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Lee,
Option1 - This may not be the solution for you, but it is an option. You can simply set the listings to not be indexed by search engines. For example, if you visit the listing you used as an example above, and look at the source code, you'll see among other things:
<meta name="robots" content="index,follow">
In your _publish_listing.html template, you could change that header info to say:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow">
and the search robots will ignore your listings and won't index them.
Option2 - You will have to research this some more, but I'll tell you what I think is possible and maybe someone with more knowledge about the .htaccess file can answer with specifics.
I believe you can create a custom 404 error page in your /listings directory. What this means is that any attempt to access a page in your directory http://www.villassist.com/varm/listings/ that results in a "page not found" error, would display your custom 404 error page. That page could be designed to look like the rest of your site and could simply say "The listing you are looking for has been sold/leased. Please see all of our current listings at http://www.villassist.com/varm/exec/search.cgi or whereever you want them to link to. I also believe you could program that page to automatically redirect them after x seconds so it would say "That listing has been sold! You will now be redirected to our current listings ... or click here to go now"
Hope that helps.
Steve
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Joey
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Mar 10, 2003, 10:48 AM
Post #6 of 6
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Re: [leeshields] Dead Listings / Search engines
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Option 2 is exactly the way we handle so called "Dead Listings".. because if you delete listings and do not add new ones you get that problem...
If you use Cpanel 5 or 6 to administer your domain it has a simple area to cut and paste your "Custom error pages" If you are using Plesk you do not have a way through there to do this.
To do this manually using .htaccess follow this:
http://www.outfront.net/tutorials_02/adv_tech/customerrors1.htm
Also there are many free javascripts that can be used to redirect or it may be good just to put a "This Listing has already been sold" AND place a search box there with the appropriate fields so someone can continu on there way finding your listings.
Hope this helps.
Joey Stubblefield
http://www.Used-CarLots.com
Joey Stubblefield
http://Used-CarLots.com
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