Re: Where do I begin?

From: Mark Bishop <markb_at_aala.com>
Date: Tue 20 Aug 2002 22:09:30 -0500

Hi Lyn,

I took a look at your site (very nice) and I immediately noticed a number
of possibilities as to why your site is not getting indexed. I'll try to
be concise. You can write me off the list directly for more information
and help as I specialize in Advanced Search Engine Marketing.

First, your site is based on dynamic .asp web pages. While the major
search engines and directories can index .asp pages, they
don't. Why? Because indexing a database is a mine field for a search
engine. The question marks in your URLs are a signal to the search engines
that they are facing dynamic pages to index.

When you have dynamic web content there's really nothing for the search
engines to index because many of your pages are created "on the
fly." Another problem is that many dynamically generated pages use other
symbols that can create trouble with some of the engines. Some of those
other symbols that engines have a difficult time in reading, include: ?, &,
%, + and $.

This is not to say dynamic web sites don't get indexed. You will find that
most PPC (Pay Per Click) will index you. But then, you're paying to get
listed. Some larger dynamic sites will turn their dynamic content into
static HTML web pages that are search engine friendly. Apache and Cold
Fusion will allow you to convert your dynamic URLs into static web
pages. Third party software that might help you to convert your dynamic
pages would include: http://www.positionpro.com and http://www.inceptor.com

Also, you might want to consider developing normal static HTML entry web
pages to your site with links to your dynamic pages. Google, for example,
will crawl your static HTML web page and then index your dynamic links but
it won't crawl a dynamic web page to index dynamic links. There are some
other methods too that work for some sites and not for others. But the
goal is to make those dynamic pages you want indexed to look like regular
static HTML pages.

There's much more to say about this subject, but I do hope the above helps
some.

Sincerely,


Mark Bishop



Received on Tue Aug 20 2002 - 22:09:30 CDT