A dynamically generated website uses server-side scripts and a database to determine which information is displayed to the user. Most, if not all dynamically generated websites will use a CMS (Content Management System) to modify specific information within the websites database.

You can often determine if a site is dynamically generated by checking the Query String a.k.a (The Address Bar) whilst browsing the site. Certain bits of information may be separated by symbols like ? or & for example.

There are certain ways to change this but more about that a bit later.

The point of a dynamically generated website is to automate processes, return queries / whilst making it easier for future editing.

Ok enough already, what’s the catch?

Unfortunately although dynamically generated websites are considered a convenient way to display information, not all search engines are able to “see” the information they contain from within the scripts or database.

More often than not spiders usually ignore database content and Google even imposes limits on the number of dynamically generated web pages it will index.

How can I make my dynamically driven website index better?

As I mentioned earlier when browsing a dynamically driven website you’ll often come across symbols being passed through the query string like ? or &.

However using an add on called “mod_rewrite” you can actually make your dynamically driven websites lose the symbols prefix and also use the .html file type instead of other server-side scripting languages like .php or .asp to name a few.

What this does is help render the information contained within the website in a way that makes it easier for the search engine to crawl and index.

Or another way albeit, more work intensive is to create static web pages for each query your website produces, this is the more frightening of the two however both can add a substantial boost to your dynamically generated websites SEO.

So remember when thinking about incorporating dynamically generated functionality into your website, think long-term and invest the time to bring your dynamically driven website up to standards.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 at 3:06 pm and is filed under SEO Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.