While I'm uploading my presentation of my WordPress session to SlideShare, I was looking for an upload client as my HTTP connection was bound to die. I searched for [slideshare upload] and found this result:
PHP Session ID's in your URL? A presentation as the best result on your site for that term? Come on SlideShare, get a decent SEO and get it FIXED.
(I'm in the SEO howlers session on A4UExpo where Andy, Dixon and Kristjan Mar are showing off loads of typical stupid issues like this, and doing a damn good job of it. You should have been here!)
I find it equally as disturbing that a single presentation on slideshare has the #1 spot for this query. yes, they can definitely use some professional SEO care.
Slideshare should get it is SEO fixed? Could you explain what that means?
Yikes! Quick, send them a link to Yoast. btw - I've had some incidents like this and have found that Google's URL removal tool (in Webmaster Utilities) works well.
That it's SEO isnt arranged good enough? Check screenshot?!
Just a note to chime in and say that we are listening. Tell us more.
Thanks, this is great stuff. To be true, this HAS been on my todo list but I hadn't prioritized it 'till now. Are rel=nofollow tags in all links to the upload page the way to go here? Or is a more extreme step (like the google URL removal tool mentioned in the comment) warranted?
Please keep the criticism coming ... it is *extremely* valuable to us! ;->
@Jonathan: Shouldn't this query lead to the upload itself (without the sessionID)? You should consider removing those sessionID's from your URL's, or adding a rel="nofollow" to every link that contains such an ID.
@Jonathan: Shouldn't this query lead to the upload page itself (without the sessionID)? You should consider removing those sessionID's from your URL's, or adding a rel="nofollow" to every link that contains such an ID.
Thx for all the comments!
@Jonathan Boutelle: I'll shoot you an email :)
Oh right, you meant ITS and not IT'S. Yeah, spelling is difficult.
@bla: so is being nice apparently :)
Don't you know that Google has already 'solved' the id session issue and discards them automatically, so that us dumb webmasters don't have to worry about that? At least, that's what they said.
@sergio: As long as these kind of session ID's show op in search results, they haven't solved anything. Do you have a source with more information? I think a search engine would and should be very careful in changing URL's or ignoring parameters while "interpreting" pages and URL's. Normally, SE's will diagnose duplicate content when sessionID's are passed in URL's which causes link authority to leak to pages that won't turn up in search results. The best solution in my opinion is not to use session ID's in your links, at least not for important pages you want to be found with.
I've seen, in some of the recent webmaster/google discussions that the SEs get past this, but like you're saying, a lot of SEO juice is lost.
I'm working on some django development and I'm really focussed on SEO within the app, it's a pity if you have to update your codebase with a problem like this. It's really an avoidable problem. Those IDs are just ugly!