RE: search engine page rank

Andre touched on this, but the importance of good URL's cannot be
underestimated - relevant folder structures and filenames, and no
querystring parameters.  Google does seem to index pages with querystring
parameters these days, but not as consistently as those without, and it
doesn't seem to rank them as well.

If your site is dynamically generated, you can use a rewrite filter to
present an appropriate URL scheme to your users.  We have found ISAPI
Rewrite (www.isapirewrite.com) to be the best for Windows platforms, and if
you are on Apache, modrewrite is built in.

An example of the type of URL we try to use is:
http://www.officebuilders.com.au/pages/consultation/preparation_for_consulta
tion.html

This is actually received at the web server as 
http://www.officebuilders.com.au/default.asp?id=preparation_for_consultation

As you can see, the rewritten URL is also nicer for humans to read.

(I know this site is not optimised for spidering in any other way,
especially in it's use of dynamic menus.  I'm just trying to illustrate the
URL issue :) )

As far as trying to fool the search engines - don't even try.  Anything you
do should be rooted in making the site itself more relevant to humans for
the search terms you are targetting.  Google will figure out if you are
trying to trick it (even when you think you are being very clever).  Once it
does you will be blacklisted and future efforts to increase your ranking
will be even more difficult.


Ben