The #1 thing to remember about "dynamic" pages is the URL -- if it has a
"?" in it, it'll stop the Search Engine dead. As far as I know, this *was*
true for all of the search engines. Regular URLs, even if very long, are
fine, but punctuation prevents indexing.
[ Note that I say "was" true...if you haven't been following the "portals"
discussion, you may have missed the fact that all these SEs are trying to
become a portal. As they've added email, reviewed listings, and all the
other crud, they've also been tweaking their search algorithms and doing
things to their spiders. "The Truth is out there" it just isn't very clear
at the moment -- in other words, what worked to get a page listed in your
favorite SE last week may or may not work next week. ]
Another problem with dynamic pages is if they are different every time --
for example, if the IP address, browser type, or selections in a form
dictate what's on the page -- then which version of the page is what gets
indexed? You have to be set up so the SE can get to a page in that case,
and some sites aren't. Most SE spiders can't fill out forms...well, at
least not the ones I've heard of.
One suggestion I've heard is to have a CGI that routes the spiders to a
static version of the dynamic page, one that has been tweaked to have only
the info on it that you want indexed. Supposedly some spiders are now not
indexing pages that they've been directed to in this way, however, out of
suspicion that they're being directed to the page for Spamming purposes.
An important question to ask yourself is "does this page need to be
indexed?" A lot of those truly dynamic pages really don't need to be in the
search engines. For example, do search results on Excite need to be indexed
by Alta Vista? Yet I've seen listings like that. (BTW, pages that use a
simple server side include to put in the same header and footer every time
aren't what I consider truly dynamic -- that's just a shortcut in my
opinion. I only consider pages that have sections coming from a database or
that are created on the fly from a script to be truly dynamic. If there's
an HTML-coded chunk of page that you can view on your local system without
running a personal web server, then it's not what I call dynamic -- just a
little enhanced.)
--Tamra Heathershaw-Hart
(who now has an NT box serving up Cold Fusion pages only a few feet away
from her desk...)
At 07:17 PM 6/23/98 -0800, you wrote:
>I need some assistance please, folks, before I start spinning b.s. and
>paint myself into a corner I can't get out of. I don't know much about
>static vs. dynamic pages, and just received this inquiry from a client:
>
>"What about static vs. dynamic pages? I've read that the search engines
>won't pick up dynamic pages, and that many smaller ecommerce programs/hosts
>don't allow for static pages. Do you know how Shopsite/First Host works in
>that respect?"
>
>Am I correct in assuming that the only page in a commerce site that needs
>to be dynamic would be the shopping cart/order form page (which wouldn't
>need to be indexed by search engines), and that the rest of the site would
>be the usual static HTML pages?
>
>While we're on the subject of search engines, I have another question. This
>client insists on frames for their site. What are the precautions that I
>need to take to make sure they function properly with search engines?
>
>thanks, Suz
>
>Suzanne Stephens, Stephens Design; Ashland, Oregon
>541-552-1192 http://www.KickassDesign.com/ ICQ #8190023
>CyberCircus Grand Prize Winners http://www.thecybercircus.com/
>Web Page Design for Designers Design Resources:
http://www.wpdfd.com/wpdres.htm
>Clip Art: http://www.freeimages.com/stephens/
>
>
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