Page includes

[Schlo_50]

Hi all,

 

Im currently exploring methods to make a website more seach engine friendly. I read that including pages with PHP with '?' is poor for optimisation and do wondered what my other options might be?

 

I currently use the following to include pages into my index.php file:

 

<?php    
    if(!empty($_GET['id']) && file_exists("./$_GET[id].php")){
include("./$_GET[id].php");
     } else {
include("./main.php");
     }
?>

 

Making my hyperlinks look like this:

<a href="?id=main">Link Here</a>

 

I have seen sites have the following in the address bar but am not sure how to achieve it? http://www.somesite.co.uk/some-page

 

Also, is there any better character to use other than '?' ?

 

Sorry for all the questions but I'd like to know what others are doing,

Thans in advance!

[JasonLewis]

What those sites are using is rewriting. Look at the mod_rewrite section of these Forums, or Google it. It's relatively easy to implement.

[Schlo_50]

Is mod_rewrite when implement more search engine friendly?

[premiso]

Yes, when implemented correctly mod_rewrite is way more SEO friendly, mainly because you can disguise the urls to look like actual pages and not have to use the ? and the = and the & which most search engines do not like.

 

Instead of :

 

http://www.yoursite.com/page.php?h=1&b=2 

 

it is

 

http://www.yoursite.com/page/h/1/b/2.html

 

The .html is not necessary but yea. Using the modrewrite you can parse that data out of there and have a clean looking url.

 

As suggested google has a bunch of tutorials on this and it is fairly easy to implement.

[Schlo_50]

Damn..Not sure as if it is enabled on my server..

[JasonLewis]

Contact your host and ask if you can get it enabled. If it's disabled.

[haku]

Almost all hosts allow URL re-writing. You just have to set it in the .htaccess file.

[premiso]

Easy way to check,

 

create a phpinfo.php with the following:

 

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

 

Open the page and look under "Apache" -> "loaded modules"

 

If mod_rewrite is enabled it will be listed under that.