Impact of Server Side Includes on SEO

[ProWeb]

Does anyone know definitively whether using server side includes (i.e. <#include file="">) has a impact on Search engine optimisation.

The real question; Will google and other search engines spiders read text from include files?

[Ubik]

The include files are processed by the server, and the google search crawler is a type of client, so those include files will be processed just like any other file if you have directory browsing on.

If you include the file into <%=request.servervariable("PATH_INFO")%>, the output of that include file will be processed by the crawler, but the crawler will think it is just processing the <%=request.servervariable("PATH_INFO")%> file...

heh. Coding in my response.

[Bullschmidt]

I agree that server side includes shouldn't have an effect. Would be the same as if the code were really on the main page...