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As
websites have grown larger and more complex, companies have begun using dynamic
publishing systems to help them manage sites that contain hundreds or thousands
of web pages. Popular programs by companies like Vignette, Microsoft, and Broadvision
turn a website into a database driven application capable of publishing and managing
large amounts of content. When websites use dynamic publishing, a web page isn't
built until it is requested from a user, guaranteeing that the content is up to
date.
When these content management programs deliver information back to
a web browser the links they create often contain many of the snippets of code
they are using to assemble a page on the fly. This might include characters such
as "?, $, @, %, &".
When a search engine tries to read a dynamic
link, it often stops when it encounters the characters that dynamic publishing
systems use to deliver a page. This means that a search engine cannot easily crawl
and index the website. This means that fewer pages of your website will be indexed
by a search engine. This in turn means you will show up in fewer search results.
One
thing that many people fail to realize is that search engines create multiple
entry points into your website. While your home page may be the one that people
find most often, websites that have lots of pages indexed will begin driving traffic
to pages located deeper within the website.
These interior pages often
draw much more qualified users because they are looking for information specific
to a certain topic. Because they are looking for very specific information, they
are also more likely to convert on a sale or action that you have prepared for
them.
If dynamic publishing is keeping your content from showing up in
the search engine database, these more qualified visitors often won't find your
website. It's very important that as much of your website is visible to the search
engines as possible if you hope to drive traffic from search engine marketing.
Good link architecture can solve this problem in many cases.
Paid inclusion
programs like Inktomi Search Submit or Index Connect guarantee that the pages
you want search engines to index are included in their database. This means they
don't have to crawl your site and guess at what information is beneath the surface.
Instead, you are telling them the pages you want them to include and re-crawl
on a regular basis. This even includes dynamic pages because you provide Inktomi
with a list dynamically generated URL's which it then knows will contain content
and information specific to your website.
Dynamic publishing systems should
never hinder the ability of your users to find you. If your website uses dynamic
publishing, you need to understand if search engines are able to see deep within
your website. A good way to find out is by using Marketleap's Search Engine Index
Count tool. This tool will show you the number of pages that your website has
indexed by each of the major search engines. Once you see how much of your website
is being indexed today, you'll know how much of an issue dynamic pages are for
your website.
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