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Hashtags in Webhelp output
Posted: Tue May 19, 2015 10:17 pm
by ashleybrown415
Hi,
The oXygen webhelp output uses hashtags as a separator, but google doesn't index them properly and they're causing a bunch of problems for our team. Can I change this setting somehow? Ideally, the #s would just be dropped altogether, i.e.
http://docs.localytics.com/#Dev/Instrum ... -mode.html
would become
http://docs.localytics.com/Dev/Instrume ... -mode.html
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!
Ashley
Re: Hashtags in Webhelp output
Posted: Wed May 20, 2015 5:28 pm
by sorin_ristache
The hash characters (the #'s) should not be removed from the address of the WebHelp pages and from the links to other WebHelp pages.
Google will index properly the pages that have a # in the address if you override in your custom Google Analytics code the default page value by adding a call like this one:
Code: Select all
ga('send', 'pageview', { 'page': window.location.pathname + window.location.search + window.location.hash});
as
explained on the Analytics website.
Re: Hashtags in Webhelp output
Posted: Thu May 21, 2015 7:39 pm
by ashleybrown415
Is there a way for us to fix
this behavior, where an incorrect link including a hashtag causes the site to load inside itself?
Thanks!
Ashley
Re: Hashtags in Webhelp output
Posted: Thu May 21, 2015 10:14 pm
by ashleybrown415
Also, could you clarify how it could be that the change you're suggesting would affect Google search results, since Google search crawlers can't & don't read javascript? It's hard to imagine how the change could impact how our site reads & routes URL requests. Many of our customers come to our site via Google search, so it's vital that the links are indexed properly.
Thanks!
Ashley
Re: Hashtags in Webhelp output
Posted: Tue May 26, 2015 9:10 am
by sorin_ristache
ashleybrown415 wrote:Is there a way for us to fix
this behavior, where an incorrect link including a hashtag causes the site to load inside itself?
I can't find that behavior of the site loading inside itself. How can I see that in the browser on
your site? What links do I have to click?
What browser name and version do you use?
Re: Hashtags in Webhelp output
Posted: Tue May 26, 2015 9:12 am
by sorin_ristache
ashleybrown415 wrote:Also, could you clarify how it could be that the change you're suggesting would affect Google search results, since Google search crawlers can't & don't read javascript?
Google
clarified it on their website. Please see
the note about overriding the default
page value.
ashleybrown415 wrote:It's hard to imagine how the change could impact how our site reads & routes URL requests.
The change that I suggested will only impact how Google will index the WebHelp pages that are loaded by a URL that includes a hash character.