Dynamic websites are becoming increasingly common, spurred on even further
by the addition of web 2.0 applications to many sites. A dynamic page reduces
the amount of work that might otherwise be associated with regularly changing
or updating content. Database driven websites are the most common form of dynamic
websites and also use dynamic URLs. While search engines are able to index
dynamic pages with dynamic URLs, it can pay dividends in SEO traffic to convert
them to static URLs.

Sites With Dynamic URLs

Dynamic URLs are little more than a representation of the database query that
returned the page. In contrast, static URLs contain information regarding that
page and can be keyword optimised to improve SEO results. Ecommerce stores,
blogs, and CMS websites are among the most likely to use dynamic URLs and potentially
lose face with the search engine spiders. As well as the SEO benefit, static
web addresses are also easier for human visitors to read and understand.

Spiders And SEO Indexing

Generally speaking, the easier it is for a spider to index a page, the quicker
that page will be indexed. Getting a page indexed is the first and one of the
most important steps in SEO because a page cannot rank at all until it has
been indexed. Spiders struggle with dynamic web addresses and therefore it
can take longer for a page to be indexed – in some instances, a page
may not be indexed at all although this is rare.

Adding Your SEO Keywords

SEO keywords can be placed throughout the pages of your site, and this includes
the path address to that page. Static URLs can include the main keyword pertaining
to a page as well as those that might appear in the main site address giving
you greater SEO keyword coverage. The advantage may not be huge but it does
exist and there is always the benefit to human visitors to help sway the argument.

Solutions To Remedy The Situation

Several solutions to this problem exist. The manual approach is to edit the
htaccess file on your server and include redirects from the static URL to the
dynamic URL. Websites operating on Linux based servers need to install the
Apache Mod Rewrite Rule before this works. Essentially, pages are still stored
in their dynamic form with dynamic URLs but are mapped to a static version
of that URL. When a user (human or search engine spider) accesses that static
address the appropriate page is displayed. This is an acceptable method for
human users and for search engine spiders.

Convert To Static URLs To Improve Your SEO

Special scripts can be installed on a server that automate the process. Blog
owners especially have access to various SEO URL redirect tools that take the
manual labour out of this work. Some programs will use the page title to form
the page address while others may present the opportunity to add an address
of your choosing. Similar programs exist for content management and even shopping
cart based websites. Whether you intend to embark on a journey that enables
you to manually complete the process or you use a script to do the work for
you, it will prove beneficial in your SEO efforts.

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