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Google Searching for Codeigniter User Guide
#1

(This post was last modified: 01-20-2016, 12:40 AM by wolfgang1983.)

I have noticed when I type in codeigniter user guide google for some reason still comes up with the

ellislab.com user guide links for codeigniter.

Not sure why it has not yet been changed?
There's only one rule - please don't tell anyone to go and read the manual.  Sometimes the manual just SUCKS!
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#2

I agree that this may be an issue, especially for some who may not speak English well, but there is a rather large notice at the top of the Ellislab CodeIgniter page:


Quote:Did you arrive here from an old link or search engine? CodeIgniter has a new home, here are some helpful links:

   CodeIgniter @ BCIT
   CodeIgniter Forums
   CodeIgniter Documentation


I'd like to see Ellislab remove their version of the user guide, because it tends to be first in the search results.
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#3

Some optimisation will be a good action.. starting with Google webmaster tools.
Best VPS Hosting : Digital Ocean
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#4

Quote: starting with Google webmaster tools.

plus one to that suggestion - it takes time to set up and validate but it can help a great deal with google search results.
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#5

I dont see how Google webmaster would be of any help here? For any search term related to CodeIgniter, ellislab.com has build up quite a reputation for it. Considering the facts that:
1. The current documentation (probably) consists of a lot of duplicated content from the original (at ellislab.com)
2. Ellislab.com has more incomming links from across the web regarding CodeIgniter terms and is an older (active) domain
3. CodeIgniter.com has a thank you link in the footer (on every page) to ellislab.com, the other way round is only a link on a view pages.

The only way I see that codeigniter.com would outgrow the relevance of ellislab.com is to either have https://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-guide 301 redirect to http://www.codeigniter.com/user_guide/, or wait a couple of years.

Frankly I dont understand what motivates Ellislab to have an old codumentation on their domain. Anyone knows if ExpressEngine still runs CI 2.2.0 or has it migrated to CI3 (or adopted the 2.2.6 version)?

Whenever I need to view some documentation I have adopted a habit of adding a "3" in my search query, just to get the codeigniter.com results on top of the page. So I would search for "codeigniter 3 form validation" for example instead of "codegniter form validation". Shamefully it does the trick...
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#6

Me sharing this won't change anything, but I guess you'd like some insight ...

Sadly for us now, but shortly after I joined the team, EllisLab went through a kind of a re-branding process. It included bringing all of their products under the ellislab.com "umbrella" and have them use the same designs for web pages. In fact, that was one of the reasons for changing the docs.

Before that, as old-timers probably remember, CI was on its own domain. Nobody wanted to break the then "old" links and so codeigniter.com/user_guide/ redirected to ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-guide/, but unfortunately this redirect got broke on numerous occasions and for long time periods, so unfortunately Google indexing may've been affected by that.
Good thing I didn't merge this though. Smile

It will sort itself out eventually, perhaps in a year or something like that.

The (obvious) idea for EllisLab to redirect back to us has been brought up before, but I'm not sure if Jim has been in contact with them on that matter. I guess he'd reply himself to shed more light on that one.
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#7

Another thing worth noting is that some of this has to do with your own search history (and other information the search engine is tracking). When I type codeigniter into Google, the first entry that comes up (after the ad(s)) is https://www.codeigniter.com with additional links broken out for the User Guide, Download, Documentation, and Tutorial pages. After that, I get two EllisLab links, followed by Wikipedia, GitHub (and the CodeIgniter-RESTServer GitHub), Stackoverflow, and Twitter.
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#8

EllisLab has been hosting an archive of the CI2 user guide, as it was at the time relevant to ExpressionEngine developers. The expectation was that codeigniter.com (the current site) would come to be considered authoritative by Google, for all things "CodeIgniter".

EllisLab has released EE3, and I would think that their need for the CI2 user guide is diminishing, though they would still have a lot of developers using EE2. They will at some point do a blanket redirect, but it still makes sense for them to keep things the way they are for now. Derek Jones and I correspond occasionally, so I will find out when they are ready to unhook CodeIgniter from their site.

I would suggest that Google is considering us more authoritative every month Smile

According to Alexa, codeigniter.com's "rank" is #9467 worldwide, while ellislab.com is #10093. Lower #s are better.
According to a page rank checked, we have domain/page authority around 75%, while EllisLab is still around 85%.
Take these numbers with a grain of salt - this is just the result of a bit of digging on my part.
James Parry
Project Lead
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#9

Quote:I dont see how Google webmaster would be of any help here?

google webmaster is a must have for any website that wants better google results and rankings. it is very powerful if used correctly but you have to follow each step carefully when setting it up. once you are verified etc, and assuming you are doing everything else correctly it can change the top google results very quickly -- sometimes in a few minutes. sounds hard to believe but i've seen it happen while working with it.
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#10

Unfortunately the Ellis lab pages have lots of great links from stack overflow et al that give them great authority and they will not age for some time. There is also no notice on those pages to alert people that the content may be out of date. However, some of the content you find on Ellis Labs pages is still great content, and I would hate to see all that history lost. With minor adjustments the advice and help offered there is still valid and has some great input from the user base and past developers.

Also, I think it is a great thing that BCIT has not tried to fuzz the history of CI and Ellis Lab at all. Many new owners would have tried to hide or obfuscate that in some way. I think the history of CI is a great story and it is a credit to BCIT and the development team that they have taken this project on in such a open and constructive way. Since CI3 I have learned so much from CI and since BCIT's ownership I have never felt so confident and positive about the future of CI.

Finally, although I cannot wait for CI4, CI3 is fantastic and the all the bug fixes done and continued development on it has been simply brilliant and much appreciated.

Best wishes,

Paul.
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