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.

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"Dynamic Pages vs. Static Pages"

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Comments

1

tandrus Dec 15, 2005

Hello Adam,

I have several articles that I would like to rotate on my home page. Better still, might be to have the first paragraph rotate of each article rotate, and link to static pages deeper in the site. I assume this requires some kind of dynamic content script. Do you have a recommendation for this?

 

2

tandrus Dec 15, 2005

Will it help me at all that my static page has already been indexed before changing it to a dynamic page?

Thanks,

T. J.

 

3

AHFXStudios Dec 16, 2005

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).

The already indexed static pages can be benficial only if you set up 301 permanent redirect pages for each of the static pages (This only applies if the page name changed .i.e. from index.html to index.php or index.asp. If the file name stays the same, you will have no problems whatsoever) Otherwise, the search engine will have to "refind" the content and index it just like it is a new page.

 

4

leo Feb 17, 2007

I dont know but why i don find such informative and profitable blogs so often,I suspect blogging world is becoming so small that we cant find such lucrative blogs like this one.

 

5

mark schwartz May 9, 2007

Good discussion. I would like to know which the SEOs rate higher on my wordpress blog. Should I be putting content in as PAGES or CATEGORIES? I have heard that pages are preferred by the search engines, but I prefer to write and post under categories. Thanks.

 

6

Maria Mar 21, 2008

how to create dynamic pages to static pages in asp do u have any idea of this.

 

7

David Oct 30, 2008

According to a google article, google search engine can handle dynamic pages just fine. It is warned NOT to convert dynamic link to static one.