Client detection vs. search engine bots - Webmaster Forums UK SEO SEM Webmaster Community Forum

Merras · #1 (**permalink**) 07-15-2008, 01:57 PM

Hi,

I would appreciate your opinion about my problem. One of my clients' site is indexed by Google, but I suspect, there is a problem with a client detection script on the main page.

At domain.tld there is no content, just a client detection script; this is the source code:

Code:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
    <title>Kliens vizsgĂĄlat</title>
    <meta name="keywords" content=""/>
    <meta name="verify-v1" content="iUtO6/DkWRuz93BO33Gk/l1PTyRNXi5hAdsLysKNR9o="/>
</head>
<body>
<div id="main" style="vertical-align:top;"><!--|start|main|--><!--|START BLOCK: detector|--><script type="text/javascript"> var resultContainer = ']'; </script><form id="cdform" name="cdform" method="post" action="/">
<input type="hidden" name="TARANTULA_SESSID" value="ZHH54bwgEJO9gvhRdzte4mmx" />
<input type="hidden" name="tpeci" value="]" />
</form>
<script type="text/javascript">

var flashTested = true;
var flashInstalled = 0;
var flashVersion = 0;
var visualBasicNeeded = "false";

if ((navigator.plugins) && (navigator.plugins.length))
{
    if (objRef = navigator.plugins["Shockwave Flash"])
    {
        flashInstalled = 2;
        if (objRef.description)
        {
            descString = objRef.description;
            flashVersion = descString.charAt(descString.indexOf('.') - 1);
        }
    }
    else
    {
        if (navigator.plugins["Shockwave Flash 2.0"])
        {
            flashInstalled = 2;
            flashVersion = 2;
        }
        else
        {
            flashInstalled = 1;
        }
    }
}
else 
{
    if ((navigator.mimeTypes) && (navigator.mimeTypes.length))
    {
        objRef = navigator.mimeTypes['application/x-shockwave-flash'];

        if ((objRef) && (objRef.enabledPlugin))
        {
            flashInstalled = 2;
        }
        else
        {
            flashInstalled = 1;
        }
    }
    else
    {
        visualBasicNeeded = "true";
    }
}

</script>

<script type="text/VBScript">

On Error Resume Next

If visualBasicNeeded = "true" Then
    For i = 2 To 9
        If Not (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash." & i))) Then
        Else
            flashInstalled = 2
            flashVersion = i
        End If
    Next
End If

If flashInstalled = 0 Then
    flashInstalled = 1
End If

</script>
<script type="text/javascript"> resultContainer = "[fv:" + flashVersion + resultContainer; </script>
<script type="text/javascript">

var browserTested = true;
var browserType;
var browserVersion;

detectBrowserType();
if ((browserType) && (!browserVersion))
{
    browserVersion = 'N/A';
}

function parseVersion(versionString)
{
    var start;
    var end;

    for (i = 0, versionNumber = ""; i < versionString.length; i++)
    {
        actualChar = versionString.charAt(i);
        if (((actualChar >= 0) && (actualChar <= 9)) || (actualChar == '.'))
        {
            versionNumber += actualChar;
        }
    }

    return versionNumber;
}

function detectBrowserType()
{
    agentString = navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase() + " ";

    browsers = new Array(    'Konqueror',
                'Internet Explorer',
                'Opera',
                'Netscape Navigator',
                'Netscape Navigator',
                'Mozilla'
            );

    objectsToCheck = new Array(    (document.all) && (!navigator.plugins.length),
                    (document.all) && (!navigator.plugins.length),
                    (document.getElementById) && (navigator.plugins.length),
                    (document.layers),
                    (document.getElementById) && (navigator.plugins.length),
                    (document.getElementById) && (navigator.plugins.length)
                );

    stringToSearch = new Array( 'konqueror',
                    'msie',
                    'opera',
                    'mozilla',
                    'netscape',
                    '; rv'
                );

    for(i = 0; i < browsers.length; i++)
    {
        if ((objectsToCheck[i]) && ((startPos = agentString.indexOf(stringToSearch[i])) > -1))
        {
            browserType = browsers[i];

            realStart = startPos + stringToSearch[i].length + 1;
            endPos = agentString.indexOf(" ", realStart);

            if (endPos > -1)
            {
                browserVersion = parseVersion(agentString.substring(realStart, endPos));
            }

            return;
        }
    }
}

resultContainer = "[bt:" + browserType + "[bv:" + browserVersion + resultContainer;

</script>
<script type="text/javascript">

var screenWidth;
var screenHeight;

screenWidth = (window.screen.width) ? window.screen.width : '-';
screenHeight = (window.screen.height) ? window.screen.height : '-';

resultContainer = "[sw:" + screenWidth + "[sh:" + screenHeight + resultContainer;

</script>
<script type="text/javascript">

var osType = 'N/A';

agentString = navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase() + " ";

osStringToSearch = new Array(    'win',
                                'mac',
                                'linux',
                                'x11'
                        );

osNames = new Array(    'Windows',
                        'MacOS',
                        'Linux',
                        'UNIX'
                );

for(i = 0; i < osStringToSearch.length; i++)
{
    if (agentString.indexOf(osStringToSearch[i]) > -1)
    {
        osType = osNames[i];
        break;
    }
}

resultContainer = "[ot:" + osType + resultContainer;

</script>
<script type="text/javascript"> 
window.onload = function()
{
    formObj = document.getElementById("cdform");
    formObj.tpeci.value = resultContainer;
    formObj.submit();
}
</script>
<!--|END BLOCK: detector|--><!--|end|main|--></div>
</body>
</html>

What do you think, is it causes problems to the rankings?

Bagi Zoltán · #2 (**permalink**) 07-15-2008, 02:49 PM

Merras, considering the fact that usually the most of the incoming backlinks are pointing to the main page of a given website, hence this strongest part of the website left unutilized, i think yes, it is not a very good solution. Otherwise don't see any link to inner content, do you make it index by deeplinks?
Merras, what is this script use for? Is the content displayed differently for the clients or what is its aim?

Merras · #3 (**permalink**) 07-15-2008, 03:09 PM

I think, the main purpose of the script is to handle the problem of different browsers.

If you start a domain.tld query in Google, you find the site at the first position, with 6 sitelinks, with correct meta description and title - so, somehow Google could index the main page, and the most of the contents. (site:domain.tld query shows 185000 pages.)

But, you can find this client detection on every content pages, not just the main page, and the contents are not ranking very well.

So, the site is indexed, but I suspect, something is not going well, and maybe this client detection is one of the problems.