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The problem, regardless, is that if the pages are significantly different and served randomly, it might

actually be perceived as cloaking. Matt Cutts hinted at that in the aforementioned video.

Cloaking may be used to show only one version to a particular search engine. This eliminates the problem

whereby a certain version ranks better in search engines than others. It also eliminates the possibility that

it will be perceived as spam

academically

(so long as you’re not detected!)

.

Yes, cloaking is being used

to prevent the perception of cloaking! However, we recommend doing this with a caution that Google

frowns upon it.

Either way, if you’re detected, you might be sent to the corner. For more information on cloaking, read

Chapter 11.

The last method, “temporal split testing,” is also safe, and extremely easy to implement. Simply collect

data for one timespan for A (perhaps a week), and again for B. However, doing so may be less accurate

and requires more time to make determinations.

So, in summary:

1.

Don’t ignore the organic, possibly detrimental, effects of split testing.

2.

Use internal program logic or temporal-based split testing. Do not use redirects.

3.

You can use cloaking to show only one version to search engines, but Google frowns upon this

approach.

Detecting Broken Links

Broken links are telltale sign of a poorly designed site. The Google Webmaster Guidelines advise webmas-

ters to “Check for broken links and correct HTML.” There are a number of online tools that you can use

for checking links, such as the one at

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/link-checker.shtml.

However, in many cases you’ll want to create your own tools for internal verification. To help you with

this task, in the following exercise you build a simple library in the form of a class named

LinkChecker

,

which verifies a given link for validity and provides additional information about that URL. The library

probably does more than would be strictly necessary for detecting broken links, but the extra functional-

ity may come in handy for other administrative purposes.

Because there’s quite a bit of code to write, the functionality is demonstrated through an exercise, and

how things work is explained afterwards.

Detecting Broken Links

1.

Create a new file named

link_checker.inc.php

in the

seophp/include

folder. This file con-

tains the

LinkChecker

helper class. Type this code into the file:

<?php

$LINKCHECKER_total_str = ‘’;

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Chapter 13: Coping with Technical Issues

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