Order of content on a Page=all page

Question

We have a holiday property rental site that has numerous pages, each showing 10 properties. We have a Page=all page that shows all the properties and that is a canonical link from each of the sub-pages. The properties are ordered the same on the canonical and sub-pages.

To keep the property owners happy we change the order of the properties (randomised) on a daily basis. Currently we have a googlebot specific page that shows all properties in the same order all the time, but I am not happy that this is the best way of getting ranking.

The question is: How will Google treat our ranking if we remove the (cheating) googlebot specific page, and change the display order of the properties on the canonical page on a daily basis? It's not new content, just the same content in a different order!

Thanks

Answer 1

While using a specific page for Google isn't necessary a bad thing but what you should be aware of is that Google wants the same content that is served to your visitors. Since your using canonical links Google will care little how the order of the items since Google will know that the page there is purely for making navigation easier. Millions of sites use similar to what your describing - Pro Webmasters and the whole stack exchange network use recent questions, votes, featured etc etc.

So to answer your question there's no need to use a specific page, serve the same content to Google that you are your audience. Google will work out that its random and will care little because of the canonical links.