How To Optimize dynamic sites

Dynamic websites are often not indexed well by search engines that "crawl" or "spider" websites (as apposed to those based only on manual URL submissions). It is difficult to get dynamic websites properly indexed without the right kind of optimization. (We will discuss this in detail below.)

Many spiders do not read past the "?" in a URL. (The part of the URL that follows the "?" is called the "query string" and is an indicator that the page is generated by a database.) Spiders don't like these characters because dynamic pages can create an "endless loop" or cause them to get "lost" in the database.

One of the biggest problems spiders encounter with dynamic pages is session IDs. If a spider looks at the same page twice, it will see different session IDs and assume it is looking at two different pages. This, more than any other factor, can create an "endless loop" situation.

Recently, some search engines (notably Google) have improved their spiders to be able to index SOME dynamic pages. However, dynamic sites still risk not being indexed to their greatest potential without the right kind of optimization.

KEY POINT: The more pages a site has, the greater chance it has of appearing in results for relevant search terms. But thousands or even millions of pages won't do you any good if the spiders aren't indexing them.