That looks correct, although Google seems to blow through that rule for a couple sites I have been watching.

If you decide to regenerate the html catalog into the root remember that it will overwrite the index.html file, so if you have customized a 'splash' page it will overwrite it. Always a good idea to dump the old catalog if you are regenerating.

Balinor,
Thank you for responding to my post. All my static pages outside the cart are linked to the catalog/index...pages. What is the reason why I can't leave the catalog where it is? Sorry if I am being obtuse about this. I am not understanding why it should be placed in the root directory. If my robots.txt file is in the root directory, then the robots should pick that up first....then to my homepage and follow links from there. They would then pick up my catalog pages and ignore the .php side of things. Right??

If you have gone through and manually linked to the catalog/ directory, then it shouldn't be an issue. The main problem with the catalog directory is getting the spiders INTO it. Redirecting from home.php to catalog/index.html is not good practice, as the SE's don't like redirects all that much, at least in my experience.

Hey again,
I checked my web stats to see if the spiders and robots were picking up my robots.txt file and if I am understanding the info. correctly it looks like they are picking it up about 20-40% of the time. ....need a manual just to understand the web-stats :?

Is there something in the robots.txt file I should change?

BTW: Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions...I am learning new info everyday thanks to people like you!

Hey Danielle...the real test of your setup will be to see which pages get indexed in the search engines :) Just be patient...but stay on top of it to make sure it is working the way you want it to. Your robots.txt file looks good to me!

They are only offering this on the 4x branch. Anyone know of a similar solution for 3.5x branch?

Afraid not.

Padraic,

If you are up right now and could respond to this I would greatly appreciat it. I need to know if I can stop the HTML catalog generation in the middle of it without creating any major errors or situations with the stability of my site. I would like to use the safety net service you recommended if it is still the simplest way to make my site optimized for the search engines. I have over 3000 products on it and the html generation is taking forever. Please let me know if I can stop it, how I would stop it, and whether the safety net product is the best way to go. How easy is it to install the safety net?

Thanks,

I'm afraid I can't help you with the HTML catalog, as I use the DSEFU mod exclusively. Yes, it is definitely the way to go and you don't have to worry about install as it is included in the price :)

Thanks balinor 8)

Tangodancer has opted to do the DSEFU shuffle :)