You do not need the .html or .htm in the URL to reach the page
Not sure if I have just stumbled upon something very clever or I am being ignorant here… I’ll start at the beginning:
Whilst updating pages for my current employer I managed to create an error in the navigation, instead of the link being www.bayplastics.co.uk/pvdf.htm I missed the .htm off so the URL read www.bayplastics.co.uk/pvdf
However this didn’t create an error in Google Webmaster Tools, nor did it stop the link working. I haven’t done anything to make the pages redirect so it can’t be that…
I tried fetching the pages as Googlebot – extremely good feature added to Google Webmaster tools recently, highly recommended! And the only difference is these three lines:
Content-Location: pvdf.htm
Vary: negotiate
TCN: choice
I’ll have to look into this, but my first impression is that URL’s without the .html or .htm on the end would be much better for the search engines and usability. The URL would be shorter and increase the concentration of keywords. Using the canonical tag will let the search engines know what address to index and should improve rankings if duplicate content is avoided.
Of course I could be wrong about this! I’ll do some research and post my findings! Watch this space.
wayne Google, SEO Tips duplicate content, keyword, URL, usability
What’s Google Caffeine and what does it mean for SEO?
On Monday 10th August the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog was updated with details of the new Google Caffeine update that Google plans to implement soon. Google are describing this update as ‘under the hood‘ meaning this update should not affect rankings dramatically.
The purpose of the update is to make the coding behind Google search more effective to make searches more accurate, faster and more scalable. Here is the quote from the Google Caffeine Blog Post:
It’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions
What’s interesting about this is that this update (no details on when this update will be applied to normal Google search) is the first one in a series of updates. It’s clear Google has been working on this for some months and it is not a reaction to the launch of Bing. Over the next couple of months it will be interesting to see what Google has in store to keep itself as the number 1 search engine in the world.
In the meantime you can test out the new Caffeine update by going to http://www2.sandbox.google.com to test the Caffeine update using the Google.com index. Experimenting with this should give you an idea of what to expect from the update. Google are requesting that if you have any feedback on the update to go to the ‘Dissatisfied? Help us improve‘ link at the bottom of the page and use the word Caffeine in the subject field.
wayne Google Google, search engines, seo
