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Dynamic Webpage
A few years ago, a "?" in the URL was a complete roadblock to spiders. Today's industrial strength spiders are getting better at crawling dynamic webpage content - but there are still large problems to be aware of.
Dynamic Web Content
Dynamic web content is information that is delivered to the web browser in a different form
than it exists on the server. It is usually pulled from a database and created on the fly
at the server level through CGI programming, ASP, PHP or by a content management system.
In contrast to dynamic web content, static content is stored on the web server in the same
format that is delivered to the Web browser. If a search engine sees a static
URL, it is more likely to index the content than if it found the same content
under a dynamic webpage. Another interesting thing is that dynamic web content
pages like "php", "asp" etc. sems to have a lower ranking than static pages.
Dynamic Webpage URL
URL often uses parameters like a (?) or (%). A dynamic webpage URL can
appear to be very large, because an unlimited number of URLs can be used to
provide essentially the same content. Spiders can fall into dynamic
spider traps, crawling through thousands of dynamic webpage URLs
when only a few really need to be crawled.
Since a dynamic webpage URL usually indicates dynamic web content, the
simplest way for a search engine to avoid these spider traps was previously to
avoid dynamic URLs altogether. Today's industrial strength spiders are getting
better at crawling dynamic content, but the more variables you add, the lower
your search engine ranking.
Your website ranking will suffer, if you have several characters in the
URL, like in this example where each "Var" is a Variable;
domain.com/page.asp?Var1=abc&Var2=x&Var3=yes&Var4=y.
How to solve the Dynamic Webpage Problem
There are different solutions to the dynamic webpage problem that you
have in order to make a search engine spider index your dynamic webpages.
Use static URLs
Using CGI and Perl are relatively easy fixes, one solution being to install a
script that reads all the characters before the query string starting with (?)
or (%) and making sure there is a balance of the characters equal to a variable.
This variable can be inserted into your url.
Some common variables out there like "Path_Info" (or) "Script_Name" may be
used in dynamic databases/applications that contain complete URL addresses
including query string information. This script extracts the dynamic URL
characters before the query string from "path_info" variables, leaving the
result to mimic a static variable.
An .asp solution can be found from several companies who have managed to
develop solutions to this exact problem. One application, "xqasp," is now widely
used. This is an application that can be added on converting (?'s) into
variables into "/" using the web server.
JavaScript can also be converted by placing functions into external .js files
and then call the file up with a line placed within each webpage needing
it.
Paid placement may also prove to be a good means of getting your dynamic
content indexed in search engines, a few of which are Infoseek and
Hotbot.
With limited resources, it may prove difficult or impossible for you to
implement a solution based on static URLs. Do not worry! There are other things
you can do.
Link to dynamic URLs from static URL content
Over the years, the engines have tried to find ways of crawling dynamic
content while avoiding dynamic spider traps. One technique they use is crawling
dynamic URLs that are linked to from pages with static URLs. For example, if you
give your site map page a static URL, but have links to dynamic URLs within its
content, there is a good chance that the leading engines will crawl those links.
If they like the content they find there, they will index that content. The
search engines' reasoning here seems to be, "If you are prepared to link to this
content, then so are we.""
You can reinforce this reasoning by negotiating links to your dynamic URLs
from pages on other sites (especially high quality pages which are already
indexed). Again, the search engines' reasoning here is "If other sites are
prepared to link to your site, then so will we." If others will not link to your
dynamic content, that might give you some idea why search engines won't either!
If it proves impossible to get links to your dynamic content from other sites,
then you expect a search engine to link to your site either.
Pay for inclusion whenever possible
AltaVista, Ask Jeeves/TEOMA, FAST and Inktomi offer one or more means of
paying for individual URLs to be spidered. You can use these paid-inclusion
programs to get your dynamic URLs indexed. Paid-inclusion programs only affect
inclusion and do not influence ranking, so it is still important to make sure
your dynamic content is well optimized. For more details, see the Add-URL pages
of the respective search engines.
>> Webpage Load Time
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Aleksika.com is an online search engine marketing resource that turns you into a professional search engine optimization and
advertising expert.
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