In article <75077199cei157frdqgm568qigpkcqbq3k@4ax.com>, seodave@search-
engine-optimization-services.co.uk says...
> On Fri, 29 Apr 2005 22:29:55 GMT, Adam Davies <cornhouse@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> >we have just had a module added to our site so that we can see what
> >items are added to basket but the customer does not follow through to
> >checkout.
> >What i've noticed is that every 5-7 minutes the IP 64.242.88.10 is
> >adding products to basket.
> >I've traced the IP back and it's coming from looksmart. I never knew
> >that crawlers could add to basket I thought they just followed links.
>
> What's the URL for your shopping site?
>
> >I've spoken to the guys that we employed to do our SEO and even they say
> >they have never heard of such a thing.
>
> New to me also unless it's a spiderable link to Looksmart it shouldn't
> happen. I've never looked at the search engine Looksmart before, each
> engine is different and though Google and the other big ones don't
> follow javascript links Looksmart could (or could be experimenting).
>
> >Has anyone else come across this before? its not a big deal apart from
> >being a right royal pain in the arse as it's screwing up our stats.
>
> Have you had any visitors from Looksmart through the 'links' they must
> be following to add products to the basket?
>
> David
>
URL is http://www.justhom.com

What we've done to stop it is we have defined that all calls that are
from that specific IP to cart.php get redirected to our site map
instead, problem with this we have found though is that as soon as we do
that to one of the ip's another is taking it's place (different IP but
still associated with looksmart).

Its not a real big problem as in it's depleting the count of our stock
because that doesnt happen until a purchase has been followed throuh to
the end, all it's doing is making me spend extra time from deletig them
from our cart log modification.

On Sun, 01 May 2005 20:45:52 GMT, Adam Davies <cornhouse@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>URL is http://www.justhom.com

Found the problem. Your add to basket URLs are spiderable.

This page http://www.justhom.com/HOM-H01-cmd-maxi-p-1-pr-173.html has
12 add to basket links.

The code for the first link is-

<a
href='cart.php?mode=add&productid=173&product_opti ons[371]=1350&product_options[372]=1354&amount=1&variation_grid=Y'>
<img src='/skin1/images/status_in_stock.gif' alt='15 in stock'
onMouseOver="javascript: document.images['vg_image'].src=a1.src;
document.getElementById('size').innerHTML='34';
document.getElementById('colour').innerHTML='black ';
document.getElementById('stock_status').innerHTML= '15 in stock';
document.getElementById('price').innerHTML='<b>Pri ce:</b>&pound;17.00
incl. VAT<BR>'; if(document.getElementById('save_percent'))
document.getElementById('save_percent').innerHTML= '22'; if
(document.getElementById('tax_1')){
document.getElementById('tax_1').innerHTML='&pound ;2.53';}"
border=0></a>

Based on how search engines treat this in general I'd expect the
majority to see this as a link to-

<a
href='cart.php?mode=add&productid=173&product_opti ons[371]=1350&product_options[372]=1354&amount=1&variation_grid=Y'></a>

They basically ignore the javascript that's part of the image, not the
link.

I'm not sure why Google and Yahoo don't follow this link (in theory
they can), might be the number of variables, though I've seen Google
index URLs with 4 variables.

Are you sure it's only Looksmart?

I don't know if Looksmart obeys the rel="nofollow" attribute, but it
would be the first thing I'd try.

Does you ordering system work if Javascript is disabled?

If not you could fully javascript the add to basket links and that
will solve the problem. If it does still work with javascript disabled
you could convert the link to a form that should work also.

>What we've done to stop it is we have defined that all calls that are
>from that specific IP to cart.php get redirected to our site map
>instead, problem with this we have found though is that as soon as we do
>that to one of the ip's another is taking it's place (different IP but
>still associated with looksmart).

I'm sure they'll run out of IPs eventually :-))

>Its not a real big problem as in it's depleting the count of our stock
>because that doesnt happen until a purchase has been followed throuh to
>the end, all it's doing is making me spend extra time from deletig them
>from our cart log modification.

In principle this could be a problem with Google and Yahoo. Although
they aren't currently following those links they could in the future
if for example they increase the number of variables in a URL they'll
follow. Also as these are in principle spiderable links you might be
loosing PR through them (I doubt it, but you never know).

I'd try to have the URLs not spiderable at all, it's not that hard to
do.

David
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