The successful search engine optimization (SEO) of a dynamic web site requires complex search engine technology and methods that are substantially different and much more sophisticated than the SEO techniques used for ordinary, more conventional static web sites. In this article, I will explain how to successfully optimize these dynamic web sites and some of the techniques that we know will achieve good results.

Even as advanced Internet technology is today, it is still rather difficult to get dynamic web sites properly indexed in the major search engines unless they are professionally optimized by a reputable SEO firm. Although most search engines claim they now index the majority of dynamic web sites and, they do, experience has show us it wonÆt really happen without some serious optimization work done to them. Over and above that, the priority positioning of the siteÆs most important pages is another matter altogether.

 Search engine-friendly URL's There are numerous techniques SEO professionals use to convert dynamic URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) into search-engine friendly URLs. However, before going into that topic, we will first look at how dynamic databases used in today's modern e-commerce secure web sites are designed and the main reasons they are a bit more complicated to index in the major search engines.

What prevents dynamic sites from getting in the engines? Today, most dynamic web pages are created ôon the flyö with various technologies such as ASP (Active Server Pages), Cold Fusion technology, JSP (Java Server Pages) and so on and so forth. Now all these pages function very well for real users actually visiting the web site, but they usually create a mess with most search engine's crawlers or spiders such as GoogleBot and FreshBot and most of the others.

The simple reason for that is because all dynamically generated pages don't even exist until a user actually selects or chooses the given variable(s) that generates the pages! Most search engine spiders or crawlers are not programmed to select or choose any of those variables and that is not their job at all. As a result, those dynamic pages don't get generated and as a direct consequence, do not get to be indexed.

The biggest difficulties are that crawlers cannot read and are not trained to understand any of the dynamic databases of URLs which either contain a query string delimited by a question mark or other database characters (#&*!%) that we refer to as ôspider trapsö. Once any search engine crawler falls into any of those traps, it usually spells bad news for that dynamic web site. As a direct consequence that most search crawlers have significant problems ôreadingö any level into a typical dynamic database, most of these search engine spiders have been programmed to initially detect and then ignore most dynamic URLs! If you think this is sad, it is. But there are usually many ways around all of this.

The solutions to the "invisibility" problem

One of the first techniques that come to mind is the creation and subsequent use of traditional, static pages. The correct way to use these newly-created static pages is to place links to the dynamic pages on the static pages, effectively submitting the static pages to the major search engines manually and according to each search engine's recommended guidelines. This technique is easily implemented with a sitemap that fully displays all the links to the dynamic pages across the web site. Now most crawlers cannot index the entire dynamic pages, but they WILL index most of the content on all the pages, and that is exactly the end result we are seeking.

Your optimization firm must have full access to Web-based automated feeds with customizable creation and flexible management application control to generate XML optimized feeds for multiple search engine inclusion programs. A map can effectively be created for any large size e-commerce web site's entire list of products, thus generating an automated XML optimized feed.

The real key to this complex XML procedure is keyword and key phrase matching between the dynamic site's content and all the various search engine databases in use today.

When these special filters are used and when the proper parameters are entered, the process then generates hundreds of keywords and key phrases with rich, page-oriented search engine-friendly information that the spiders crave on.

That is how a dynamic web site can be successfully optimized for the major search engines. In closing, always remember that professional search engine optimization (SEO) techniques covering actual web site architecture, editorial linking, copy writing, keywords & key phrasesà etc. are also extremely important for top ranking positions on most major search engine portals today.