Papers & Articles

04/02/2007  |  Dynamic Site Optimisation

The majority of simply designed, well-optimised websites are built using a programming language called HTML (HyperText Markup Language). HTML sites are easily crawled and indexed by the search engine spiders. HTML is ideal for content-rich sites that do not require sophisticated web design features such as databases.

The larger and more sophisticated websites, such as online shops, are usually built with software that generates dynamic pages as the user searches for a particular product. Other examples of sites using dynamically generated web pages include membership based forums and content management systems. There is a need within these types of sites, for pages to be built as end users, e.g. online shoppers or members, enter new information. Pages, therefore, that are automatically generated, save a lot of work and time for web designers, who otherwise would have to build each page individually. Dynamic sites are built using technologies such as Hypertext PreProcessor (.php), Java Server Pages (.jsp), Active Server Pages (.asp), ColdFusion (.cfm) and Perl.

Sites built using these programming languages can look very professional when accessed by web users. The downside is that they can sometimes be slow to load and can cause frustration to potential customers. The other problem is that the search engines may not index dynamically generated pages because they may appear to the spiders as duplicate content. Dynamic web pages usually have very long titles, incorporating question marks, ampersands, percentage and equal signs. The search engine spider will read the main body of the title, which could be shared by hundreds of individual pages.

The search engines love unique content to be found on each web page that they visit. Because the spider will not index the complete title of each dynamically generated page, the end result could appear to be a number of identically named pages, leading to only one page out of the hundreds being indexed.

Because of this, it is likely that most of the dynamic pages will not be listed in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Trying to optimise dynamically generated web pages can be a long, slow and drawn out process. You would be strongly advised to seek the service of a well-established professional Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) agency. The work would generally entail rewriting the modules of the web pages into HTML language. There are many difficulties to overcome during this process, not least the probability of losing all your hard-earned SERPs rankings unless you follow the correct redirection procedures.

If these procedures are not followed correctly, the search engines, particularly Google, will most likely treat the newly converted pages as brand new web pages which will not be displayed in the SERPs for up to 12 months. You can, and most probably will, save yourself a great deal of wasted time, effort and frustration by consulting the experts.

In conclusion, dynamically generated web pages may be seen as a sophisticated, labour saving technique culminating in a professional looking design. However, if the aim is for a well-optimised site, achieving high Search Engine Results Pages rankings, then HTML is the preferred option. Once again, if you need your dynamic site to be optimised or rewritten, contact a reputable Search Engine Optimisation agency.