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HomeHomeUsing DNN Platf...Using DNN Platf...Administration ...Administration ...Strange error with text browserStrange error with text browser
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10/16/2009 2:43 PM
 

I am trying to do some basic SEO on one of my sites and have run into a strange problem.  It seemed like google was not picking up my home page (nothing in google's cache - not even company brand showing up) and in my reading I came across this:

"Use a text browser such as Lynx to examine your site, because most search engine spiders see your site much as Lynx would. If fancy features such as JavaScript, cookies, session IDs, frames, DHTML, or Flash keep you from seeing all of your site in a text browser, then search engine spiders may have trouble crawling your site."

So I downloaded Lynx and tried to view my site using Lynx.

All I get is an error.  "an error has occured"

Looking in the event viewer I see this:

DotNetNuke.Services.Exceptions.PageLoadException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. ---> System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at DotNetNuke.UI.WebControls.MenuNodeWriter.Render

The site can be viewed fine in IE, Firefox, and chrome and other pages from this site also render fine in Lynx - but my home page and any new pages I add throw this error. Changed the skins and some of the javascript browser detection settings and nothing....  I think that the same thing happens when google crawls my site - or else I would not be concerned. 

 

 

 
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10/19/2009 3:53 PM
 

Well, I just bit the bullet and upgraded to 5.1.4 - problem went away.

 
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10/19/2009 6:07 PM
 

That was an error with the older web controls, since you updated the webcontrols dll when u updated the core, it has gone away

 
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10/20/2009 12:02 AM
 

Eric : just to follow up on this in case it helps anyone else.  If you're getting a lynx error, and you're not sure if it's affecting google, take a look at your raw weblogs and search for 'googlebot' entries.  Then, look to see where the googlebot is accessing your home url.  If the Url response is a 302, and the next Url the googlebot looks at ends with ?error=error+name+here - then yes, the google bot has encountered the error on your site.

I would suggest to anyone to examine their sites in the lynx browser, or a similar seo-focused browser imitator.  You will often find these types of problems, or inaccessible content caused by javascript heavy menu systems.

 
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