Many people want to see changing contents on their websites. Instead of physically altering a webpage and uploading the edited webpage, scripts can dynamically display the webpage with different contents based on the script directions. For example, the current date or time may be displayed without making changes to the webpage.
Of course, the date or time is not important, but gives the impression of up to date news. And changing the date means changing the webpage every day. Changing the time is simply too much. This is a perfect example of when you should use dynamic contents. Another example is for interactive scripting. If the website visitor does a search, fills out a form, does a survey, or another action that requires a reaction or result, dynamic scripting is necessary.
But sometimes it is better to physically create or edit pages, especially when the pages contain relevent keywords. Search engines cannot index dynamically created webpages like they do regular static pages. If you have an entire website that dynamically creates webpages like the results of a search query, these pages cannot be read by search engines or listed in the search engine results.
If you sell products, you may consider an e-commerce website that shows your products in html pages, so each page can be indexed and listed in search engine results. It is better to have 100 indexed pages instead of just one. How do you know if your pages are dynamically created? Look at the web address. If your web address says www.domainname.com/productname.html, then you may a regular static page that can be indexed by search engines. (There are ways to rename URLs to be more search engine friendly, so some dynamic websites may appear to have html pages.) If your web address says www.domainname.com/productname.asp or www.domainname.com/productname.cfm or another scripting extension, it is probable that the page was dynamically created.
If your website has low search engine ranking and you don't want to spend a lot on pay per click or sponsor listings, you should have more static pages and less dynamic contents. But dynamic can be very practical. And virtual shopping carts themselves are dynamic, but you don't want search engines to list the cart, just the products. But if you are displaying the latest news, a survey or other changing contents, certainly use dynamic scripting to display the contents. Just decide when and where you use it.
Yvette Kuhns, Power Pages Web Design, September 19, 2003
NOTE: This article is outdated. Most e-commerce solutions have dynamic web pages that do well on search engines. Some of the older programming was created for function and not search engine performance, but that has changed.
Printer Friendy Version. If this article helped you, please donate any amount via PayPal. Thank you!
If you have any questions or helpful hints to share, please
email me.
Please view our list of past articles for more useful information.
© 2001-2012, Power Pages Web Design. All rights reserved.