Comments on: Out-of-date links to 1911census on Google http://blog.1911census.co.uk/2009/01/out-of-dates-links-to-1911census-on-google/ official blog for 1911census.co.uk Thu, 17 May 2012 04:51:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: Alberto Latimore http://blog.1911census.co.uk/2009/01/out-of-dates-links-to-1911census-on-google/#comment-5112 Alberto Latimore Sat, 25 Dec 2010 19:20:26 +0000 http://blog.1911census.co.uk/?p=246#comment-5112 Hey man! Really liked that post http://www.testthisblogtoseeifitworks.com/ . Keep me informed if you write any more. Hey man! Really liked that post http://www.testthisblogtoseeifitworks.com/ . Keep me informed if you write any more.

]]> By: iantester http://blog.1911census.co.uk/2009/01/out-of-dates-links-to-1911census-on-google/#comment-1252 iantester Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:59:09 +0000 http://blog.1911census.co.uk/?p=246#comment-1252 @John - please contact Customer Support: 020 3326 4700 support@1911census.co.uk @John - please contact Customer Support: 020 3326 4700 support@1911census.co.uk

]]> By: John http://blog.1911census.co.uk/2009/01/out-of-dates-links-to-1911census-on-google/#comment-1236 John Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:02:21 +0000 http://blog.1911census.co.uk/?p=246#comment-1236 It's Tuesday February 3rd now, and I still have not been able to access any 1911 census pages, since you added new search features. The last time I was able to access any 1911 page (apart form the blog) was before January 31st. It was about that time that you added new features, nad I have never been able to acces them (or ant other 1991 page) since then. I cannot access your help pages, so I am putting my complaint here. It’s Tuesday February 3rd now, and I still have not been able to access any 1911 census pages, since you added new search features.
The last time I was able to access any 1911 page (apart form the blog) was before January 31st.
It was about that time that you added new features, nad I have never been able to acces them (or ant other 1991 page) since then.
I cannot access your help pages, so I am putting my complaint here.

]]> By: John http://blog.1911census.co.uk/2009/01/out-of-dates-links-to-1911census-on-google/#comment-1197 John Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:06:52 +0000 http://blog.1911census.co.uk/?p=246#comment-1197 Has the system crashed today (Saturday January 31st)? I have not been able to get on the main site all day. Occassionally, I was able to get a cache front page, but after that I just get a white page, with "Done" in the browser status bar. Has the system crashed today (Saturday January 31st)?
I have not been able to get on the main site all day. Occassionally, I was able to get a cache front page, but after that I just get a white page, with “Done” in the browser status bar.

]]> By: iantester http://blog.1911census.co.uk/2009/01/out-of-dates-links-to-1911census-on-google/#comment-703 iantester Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:09:30 +0000 http://blog.1911census.co.uk/?p=246#comment-703 Thanks for your comments Steve - very helpful and I have passed your reply onto the development team. We are fixing the generioc 404 page and redirecting the old URLs with 301s so we don't have to make change directly on Google! Thanks for your comments Steve - very helpful and I have passed your reply onto the development team. We are fixing the generioc 404 page and redirecting the old URLs with 301s so we don’t have to make change directly on Google!

]]> By: Steven Chamberlain http://blog.1911census.co.uk/2009/01/out-of-dates-links-to-1911census-on-google/#comment-669 Steven Chamberlain Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:19:00 +0000 http://blog.1911census.co.uk/?p=246#comment-669 If I can just make a web design/development point, unrelated to the Census but highly relevant to this blog article... It looks like you once had a PHP-based website in place, which Google indexed, and you've now had the site rebuilt in ASP. To avoid things like this, it's preferable to configure the webserver to map clean/simple URLs such as /search to either /search.php or /search/tnaform.aspx . By carefully choosing the URLs, a change of technology or design wouldn't ever require changing the URLs. Search engine-indexed pages, people's browser bookmarks, links from blogs and published news articles, etc., may otherwise break. Shorter, simpler URLs also more humanly-readable; and easier to remember, copy+paste to friends, publish, or type in manually after reading in print. Also the page shown for a '404' (page not found error) on the 1911census.co.uk site is actually a generic page for a server error. It may give the impression that it is a temporary server error affecting the whole site; it gives no link to the homepage, so some people could find themselves refreshing/re-visiting the invalid URL repeatedly, hoping the site would begin working again at some point. BTW, I believe Google's Webmaster Tools allow you to quickly, manually remove broken URLs from their index. It requires a Google account, and after logging in you'll be required to put a certain file or piece of text on the website to authenticate you. http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ If I can just make a web design/development point, unrelated to the Census but highly relevant to this blog article…

It looks like you once had a PHP-based website in place, which Google indexed, and you’ve now had the site rebuilt in ASP.

To avoid things like this, it’s preferable to configure the webserver to map clean/simple URLs such as /search to either /search.php or /search/tnaform.aspx . By carefully choosing the URLs, a change of technology or design wouldn’t ever require changing the URLs. Search engine-indexed pages, people’s browser bookmarks, links from blogs and published news articles, etc., may otherwise break. Shorter, simpler URLs also more humanly-readable; and easier to remember, copy+paste to friends, publish, or type in manually after reading in print.

Also the page shown for a ‘404′ (page not found error) on the 1911census.co.uk site is actually a generic page for a server error. It may give the impression that it is a temporary server error affecting the whole site; it gives no link to the homepage, so some people could find themselves refreshing/re-visiting the invalid URL repeatedly, hoping the site would begin working again at some point.

BTW, I believe Google’s Webmaster Tools allow you to quickly, manually remove broken URLs from their index. It requires a Google account, and after logging in you’ll be required to put a certain file or piece of text on the website to authenticate you. http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

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