Compelling Visual Content - Dynamic Pages vs. Static Pages

Dynamic Pages vs. Static Pages

Dynamic pages can pose problems for search engines compared to static pages. Following these tips will help avoid the problems that dynamic pages can create with search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

Now, while search engines do not care if your webpage ends in .htm, .html, .asp, .php, etc., they do care if it ends like index.php?var1=this&var2=that&var3=thistable. Contrary to popular belief, search engines CAN index dynamic pages with one or two variables. However, they are much more cautious about indexing pages with variables compared to those without. I've had numerous pages indexed in Google and Yahoo that have one or two variables, but they nearly always took longer to be completely indexed by these search engines.

Why do dynamic pages take longer to index?

Search engines are cautious when indexing dynamic pages because they don't want to get stuck in an endless loop. They just aren't search engine friendly. Case in point: Someone creates a dynamic calendar on their site. The search engine sees the calendar indexes the first page. It then follows the link to the next month, and the next month, and the next month, and the next... get the point. The search engine never reaches the end of the months. It is an endless loop.

Now many website owners just wait the few months for everything to be indexed. Personally, I'm not the waiting type (It already drives me nuts to wait the first two weeks, let alone a few months, to get an initial indexing by Google, MSN, and Yahoo). However, there are a few tricks that developers can use to make dynamic pages look static (at least to the search engines). While most of these require an Apache server and mod_rewrite, there are other components for ASP that will do the same thing. I've seen others could write their own in PHP using custom 404 pages and redirects. Either way, by making your database based dynamic pages look static your web pages will be indexed much quicker by the search engines.

Now comes the second biggest problem with dynamic pages: Using the same title, description, and keywords on every page. Many programmers that create dynamic pages use the same header and footer for all pages. Unfortunately, this hurts the site's search engine placement. An easy way around this is to define variables on each page before including the header and then use those variables in the title, description, and keywords.

Knowing the problems that can arise by using database driven webpage is the first step to getting better placement. Although these problems are relatively easy to fix, many companies have a love 'em and leave 'em approach to design. Not so with AH Digital FX Studios. We are very concerned with ongoing customer relationships and are dedicated to helping every website reach its full potential. Contact us today for a free quote on our search engine optimization services.

Related Articles Website Design Blog > Search Engine Optimization Tips

Please feel free to leave a comment or question about the article
"Dynamic Pages vs. Static Pages"

Name (required) :
E-mail (required, never displayed) :
URI :
Comment:
Security Code:	[Security Code]

Any dynamic scripting language will work. Just set up a random number generator and pull the information out of an array (or simpler just use a couple of if statements to display or not display the content).