Dynamic pages and code within content
-
Hi all,
I'm considering creating a dynamic table on my site that highlights rows / columns and cells depending on buttons that users can click. Each cell in the table links to a separate page that is created dynamically pulling information from a database.
Now I'm aware of the google guidelines: "If you decide to use dynamic pages (i.e., the URL contains a "?" character), be aware that not every search engine spider crawls dynamic pages as well as static pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them few."
So we wondered whether we could put the dynamic pages in our sitemap so that google could index them - the pages can be seen with javascript off which is how the pages are manipulated to make them dynamic.
Could anyone give us a overview of the dangers here?
I also wondered if you still need to separate content from code on a page? My developer still seems very keen to use inline CSS and javascript!
Thanks a bundle.
-
That's it! Thanks Baptiste - the anchor text is going to be an image and an unoptimised image at that... I knew there was a reason that my brain was kicking up a fuss with this code. Brilliant, thanks.
-
If you have pages on your site without any internal link to them (I mean pages reachable by Google Bot when he visits your site), they won't rank well, and your site won't be ranking well too.
That's because your pages will only be visible to Google through the sitemap. The Google Bot will think "Hey these pages are not accessible to the user through the site links? I should not rank them then."
You will penalize your whole domain too because you will be losing additional pages in the site. Especially if those pages have good content (I suppose this the case anyway).
BUT, given your example, Google Bot should be able to access them with you strange link. Question is, what is the anchor text ? Is the anchor a generic text or a good keyword for each page? If you have bad anchor text, I would make a specific section on the site which allows the user and GBot to access theses pages with good anchor text.
Maybe a HTML sitemap, as you may see one on rotten tomatoes :
-
Ok, thanks so much for the advice, just to clarify there is a link to the dynamic page and it's address will be permanent so it can be accessed in the browser address bar. Here is the link example that the developer gave:
[If I understand correctly you are saying that this dynamic page can't rank? Even if it is permanently there?
Is that right?](Index.asp?Page=ExamplePage)
-
agreed, ref=canonical
-
I would rel=canonical all versions of the page to point to one without querystring. You only want one page to be indexed.
I would also (sorry) reconsider your ties with a developer who wants to use inline CSS. That is just dumb...
-
I would not recommend doing so, google will index you pages but he won't be able to find them anywhere on the internet, event on your website. They won't rank.
You should make, at least, a way for users and google to access theses pages without the buttons.
For the code / content / style issue, you should really stop putting all together - it's been 10 years since people started to separate content and style
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Ecommerce Category Pages
First, let's define the terminology for the various types of ecommerce pages. The terminology differs from organization to organization: Product Description Pages (PDPs): These pages have a single product, pricing, an "add to cart" button, reviews, and a product description. Product Listing Pages (PLPs): These are product category/subcategory pages that have product image links and text links to Product Description Pages (PDPs). Category Pages: These pages have subcategory image and text links to subcategory pages. No product images are displayed Hybrid Category Pages: these pages combine sub-Category Images and text at the top of the page and product listings below. Our CMS currently does not allow us to create hybrids. This conversation revolves primarily around mobile. Our ecommerce team is having discussions around the appropriate use of PLPs vs Category pages. After doing a quick audit of the mobile sites of some top ecommerce players, there is definitely a trend to use Category Pages at the top of the category and sub-category hierarchy and use PLPs at the very bottom. The logic from a usability perspective is to allow visitors to navigate a site without ever using the hamburger navigation. ex: Baby (Category Page) => Car Seats (Category Page) => Convertible Car Seats (PLP) The sites I audited all had hamburger menus. A visitor would navigate from a home page image for "Baby," an image on the "Baby" page to "Car Seats", and an image on the "Car Seats" page to the Convertible Car Seats page. At that point, they would be able to shop for "Convertible Car Seats" on a PLP. This appears to be excellent UX and easy to use navigation. Theoretically, good for SEO as well. In short, category and subcategory pages are being used as navigation to allow visitors to easily navigate to the bottom of the hierarchy and shop on the most narrow page in the hierarchy. Much easier to use than a hamburger menu, but it does entail more clicks. The discussion revolves around allowing users to shop for product at a higher level in the taxonomy. For example, what if a visitor wants to shop all Car Seats? In the above taxonomy, we are precluding users from shopping in this manner. There is no "Car Seats" PLP. Our CMS has the ability to create both a Category Page and a PLP for "Car Seats". We could theoretically place an image on the "Car Seats" category page for "View All Car Seats", and allow users to click to a "Car Seats" PLP. None of the major ecommerce players I've audited are adding a PLP option higher up in the hierarchy. That doesn't mean that it's not good UX. Problems: From an SEO perspective, having a Category Page and a PLP for "Car Seats" would cause cannibalization - they would be competing for the same keywords. I am skeptical that canonicals would work. The pages are not near duplicate content. One page has category images, the other has product images. We could place content blocks on the page to make them more similar. We could noindex the PLP, but that's a waste of internal link juice. Need advice: Will canonicals work in this situation? Should we trash this idea entirely? Does adding a PLP add value or confusion? Is noindex a good idea? Is there an option to target keyword variations with the PLP? Is there another solution?
Web Design | | Satans_Apprentice0 -
A question about title tag when the page has 2 services.
Hi all, Assuming a company has two services: SEO and PPC. Here is the situation: I would like to focus on SEO for now but also don't want to leave my PPC service out of the page. SEO accounts for 60% of the content, while PPC accounts for 40%. Assuming the content (SEO + PPC) of the page will not change, which title tag would you prefer, and why? SEO | brand name (Is it appropriate that the title focus on SEO but the content of the page contains PPC) SEO | PPC | brand name (Will the keywords dilute each other?) SEO | SEM Agency | brand name (The idea behind it is that SEM includes SEO and PPC so I think Google would be OK with the page ranking for SEO and also including PPC in the content. I really appreciate your help and explanation. Thank you!
Web Design | | Raymondlee0 -
Flickr Gallery Effect on Page Ranking
Hello there We are working on a redesign for our site, and our business is very image intensive (sign company) On a typical product page, we have 5 images we are placing directly in the site optimized to try to rank the images in image search We also have about 30-50 sets of images, with 3-5 images each - hosted on flickr, that we are displaying as galleries on the page (user clicks, opens a light box to view the set, etc) Here is the page - http://impactsigns.ugmade.com/sample-page/ If you look at the page code, you will see that the flickr gallery (additional examples) section - adds ALOT of code to the page (lines 498 to 837) My question is : Does adding that flick gallery block negatively impact the page SEO, all else being equal? It seems like a lot of lines of code. And dont want it to seem spammy to the search engines. Thanks for your help and advice
Web Design | | Jumman0 -
How To Avoid Duplicate Content
We are an eCommerce site for autoparts. It is basically impossible to avoid duplicate content, and I think we are getting penalized by Google for it. Here is why it is impossible. Let's say I sell a steering rack for a 2000 Honda Accord. I need an SEO rich page for 2000 Honda Accord Steering Rack. I sell steering racks for more than 25 years of Honda Accords. I can try and make the copy different but there is no way to spin the copy that many times and make it seem like it is not duplicate copy. This even gets more complicated because I sell hundreds of parts for each year of a Honda Accord, plus a lot of times you even have to go down to the engine size of the car for the right part. I can't use a redirect, ie 301 redirect because they are not the same pages. One is for a 2000 Honda Accord and the other a 2001 Honda Accord, and so on. Is their a redirect out there that I do not know about that would help me out in this case? Also, if their is no way around this and I am getting penalized would it be better to eliminate all these pages, possibly losing my ability to rank high on searches such as "2000 Honda Accord Steering Rack," and just replace with a page that has a Year Make Model, and Part dropdown which just takes the customer a checkout page?
Web Design | | joebuilder0 -
What is the best tool to view your page as Googlebot?
Our site was done with asp.net and a lot of scripting. I want to see what Google can see and what it can't. What is the best tool that duplicates Googlebot? I have found several but they seem old or inaccurate.
Web Design | | EcommerceSite0 -
Site Ranks on Page 1 - Would launching new site hurt that
Hello, I currently have a website ranking in the top 7 for my main keyword. The website was built in 2004 and is definitely outdated, yet still ranks very high and brings in business. If i launched a new site on this domain, what would happen to my rankings? Would they drop? would they rise? If i don't launch the new site, will this site eventually drop due to being old and outdated? Any advice would be helpful...
Web Design | | Prime850 -
PSD to WP Coding & Plugin Implementation?
Any recommendations? I am looking for a company that can do it to a very high standard. Need a review plugin implemented as well, which works with the theme. Clean coding, correctly named divs and clean comments. Thanks guys
Web Design | | getbigyadig0