Re: Thoughts on wpd.mx domain

We could prevent any short links being indexed under webplatform.org by 
Disallowing it in robots.txt. This way we can continue to use the url 
shortener in slides etc without it being indexed.

On 04/23/2013 03:11 AM, Doug Schepers wrote:
> Hi, Patrick-
>
> As much as I appreciate Frozenice's many contributions, I feel the 
> same way about this particular issue.
>
> Before the launch, I bought the wpd.cc domain for the same purpose, 
> but I was afraid of just this, that it would get indexed, so I didn't 
> really promote it. I wasn't sure that it would be harmful; I'm glas 
> that someone with SEO skills can speak definitively about it.
>
> Lea pointed out earlier that Twitter has a fixed length for all links, 
> so the shortener isn't needed there, and in fact they use their own 
> shortener, so it would be doubly-redirected.
>
> I do like the idea of shortlinks like webplatform.org/apis/canvas to 
> http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/apis/canvas, for links in slides, 
> etc. If Frozenice were to install his shortener on webplatform.org, 
> would that still hurt SEO?
>
> Regards-
> -Doug
>
> On 4/23/13 2:59 AM, Patrick D'Souza wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> It has been brought to my notice that wpd.mx has been setup as a url
>> shortener for webplatform.org urls. for e.g. wpd.mx/apis/canvas 301s to
>> http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/apis/canvas.
>> <http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/apis/canvas>
>> This url has been indexed by Google and I don't like the thought of
>> different urls pointing to the same content when a user is searching for
>> canvas in a search engine. It dilutes the positive effects of a
>> webplatform.org url.
>>
>> Sorry to be a little picky but we should avoid all such short urls which
>> confuse a user and in turn result in duplicate content being served to
>> search engines. I see the benefit of a url shortener as it can be useful
>> in social media campaigns as well as brand promotion for
>> webplatform.org. I propose we use this url shortener on webplatform.org
>> itself for e.g. webplatform.org/font-size which would redirect to
>> docs.webplatform.org/css/properties/font-size. Every 301 is one
>> additional request for a user which is not good in terms of performance.
>> I would appreciate if we avoid 301s as far as possible unless it's
>> absolutely required. Always, keep it simple :)
>>
>> Any thoughts and feedback are much appreciated.
>>
>> - Patrick
>>
>>
>

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Received on Tuesday, 23 April 2013 07:16:32 UTC