If you're running on a Virtual Server that hosts multiple domains, a universal mod_rewrite change at the apache root level can cause difficulties with the content of other domains that may be using any number of different languages.
Here's an alternative.
Google, MSN, Yahoo and most others don't have a problem at all with URLs that have a slash replacing the query mark like:
SomeDomain/somepage.php/var/var/var...etc
The hyperlink will go to somepage.php. You retreive the variables by parsing the URL in the header with something like:
<?
$url_array = explode("/",$REQUEST_URI);
$domain = $url_array[0];
$page = $url_array[1];
$var1 = $url_array[2];
$var2 = $url_array[3];
$var3 = $url_array[4];
?>
We've used it successfully without any penalty in the SEs. More to the point, it is no longer mandatory or even necessary to use .htm or html extensions in URLs in order to gain additional favor in the SEs. Its completely safe to promote .php, .asp, cfm, etc. URLs so long as you leave the query marks out.
Oh, and you'd better cut the MD5-style, 32-character variables you're passing to something more manageable or the SEs will ignore it anyway - maybe just for their own general link layout purposes or the 255 char GET rule. A lot of e-mail clients don't even like to send links that long...They choke on them.
[ Message was edited by: langard 10/18/2004 11:23 pm ]
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