Google Bot Info request

[Mattinblack]

It still is fine to use index pages in subdirectories and subdomains its just that Google seems to see these as being new sites for the purposes of its aging algorithm. Just means they will now take longer to appear in Google search results. If they are OLD pages that have been there a while and Google knows about them then no issues... except see below.

A radical change in page content has the same effect. I had a PR5 non-adult adwords site which despite the traffic was not making me too much money. In November I gave the site a major makeover, kept the keys the same, the links the same, the page scanned the same for keyword density and relevance however the graphics and written content did totally change on each page.

Uploaded the site and three days later saw it go from PR6 and in the top 5 searches to unlisted! At first I thought I had been banned but typing in the URL brought up the site and description and a cached page. Gradually over the last few weeks I have seen a trickle of SE traffic from Google. This compares to quite a flood from MSN since I changed it.

This is what caused me to consult my Guru (see previous post). He said I should have changed my sub pages at the rate of one a week and my index page a little bit at a time over the same sort of period. He said that an index page missing on two consecutive googlebot runs could reset aging as well, but I have no experience of that.

[Halfdeck]

Originally Posted by Mattinblack

It still is fine to use index pages in subdirectories

This is a personal call, but keep in mind that linking to "www.domain.com/index.html" and "www.domain.com/" will usually result in Google indexing both urls, in some cases causing one or the other to go supplemental. This is similar to the www/non-www supplemental issue resulting in dupes. In the worst case scenario, the duplicates may lower your ranking in the SERPs; in the best case scenario they merely make a mess out of your Google listing by inflating (doubling) the number of pages listed in Google. As you know, supplementals can be a bitch to get rid of --- a good enough reason for me to take extra measures to make sure Google listings link to me using / and not /index.html.

One way to avoid the problem of course is if you link to "www.domain.com/" and never to "www.domain.com/index.html". You can also 404 /index.html, or use a base ahref= tag.

For free sites with multiple doorways, index.html, index.htm, warning.htm will probably be seen as unique pages (due to unique recip tables, provided you link to enough LLs), but say if you submit a teen-slut/index.html url and link from your hub to that page using /teen-slut/ or if your malicious competitor links to you using both urls, then you're going to end up with a supplemental listing in Google.

[DJilla]

Originally Posted by Halfdeck

As you know, supplementals can be a bitch to get rid of --- a good enough reason for me to take extra measures to make sure Google listings link to me using / and not /index.html.

One way to avoid the problem of course is if you link to "www.domain.com/" and never to "www.domain.com/index.html". You can also 404 /index.html, or use a base ahref= tag.

Ya this part just caught up with me a few months ago, now I'm really careful about that too!

BTW.. Lot of board chatter re: "BIG DADDY" new algo for google rankings messing stuff up again.

Basic info: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/