The "?" in a URL

[deborah2002]

Okay, here goes...I had 2 different stories on the "?" (w/no quotes--duh) in a URL (like for a tracking code or whatever) isn't easily seen by spiders--is that true? I'm getting a little bogged down w/all the conflicting info so any help would be truly appreciated. BTW, if that question made absolutely no sense, please ask for clarification instead of ignoring it--I really need to know this! Thanks, ya'll! :D

[khalidali63]

Originally posted by deborah2002
if that question made absolutely no sense, please ask for clarification instead of ignoring

Will you please elaborate ..:p

[deborah2002]

I was told to put a "?" after the domain name in a url for tracking purposes (www.domain.com/?....). I also was told that as soon as a spider comes across the symbol, they freak and won't index it. If that's the case, how are you supposed to track stuff? Geez, this "clarification" isn't much better than the original question, huh?;)

[khalidali63]

Hunmm..

try this link.it might help you.
http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/robots.html

[brendandonhue]

What exactly do you think adding a ? after the URL is supposed to track???? I don't see what thats tracking?
Or did you mean something like
http://domain.com?refferer=othersite.com

[deborah2002]

Brendan, that's EXACTLY what I mean (thank you for being better at explaining my question better than I am!:p ). Again, is this one of those "darned if you do and darned if you don't" things? I need to have a fairly simple way to track some links and I'm not sure how to go about it. Like I said earlier, I have gotten so much conflicting info I don't know what to believe anymore:confused: . Thanks for the reply!


deb

[pyro]

If you use a url such as http://www.domain.com?referrer=othersite.com, you can then parse off the query string (information after the '?') using server side code. I'm guessing if you are using it as a way to keep track of referals, you will want to write the data to either a database or a flatfile... What exactly are you trying to do?

[deborah2002]

Well, I have been told by my supervisor to "get better tracking methods" and I'm trying to do just that. He needs tracking on EVERYTHING, and I'm trying to find the easiest way to accomplish this. They have tons of links to track, Overture stuff, etc. Is there a way to track all of this (all this stuff was set up way before I jumped on board!)? Easy would be great--I'm not all that jazzy on HTML stuff yet (but I'm tryin' to get there!) Thanks!

deb

[pyro]

You might want to look at some free scirpts:

PHP (my personal favorite): http://php.resourceindex.com/Complete_Scripts/Logging_Accesses_and_Statistics/

CGI/Perl: http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/Logging_Accesses_and_Statistics/

[deborah2002]

Pyro, you are a doll! Thanks for all the help (that goes for the repliers from yesterday, too!). Have a great Memorial Day Weekend (look out for check points :cool:



deb