Product Pages - Static HTML Advantages

[kjs50]

In doing my research for a cart to use for my site, I found that a lot of carts couldn't allow a user to bolt on static html pages for the product pages into it. They required the user to use their own dynamic product catalog for the front end. (For example, widget.html vs. product.php?id=4)

There are advantages & disadvantages to both, but here are a couple things to keep in mind before going with one or the other.

1) Static pages require more maintenance but allow more flexibility in page control & layout.

2) Static pages may be better indexed by certain search engines. Google will pick up dynamic pages, but it is the safest route.

3) Static pages don't require a link to the database everytime a product is viewed, resulting in faster page loads and overall site speed.

4) If you ever need to change the site to another shopping platform will your URL change as a result? With static you can keep the url as long as you are moving to another system that allows you to pass the product parameters into the cart.

Ultimately a dynamic system can be created that reads from a product database table and writes the static .html files. This way, you can incorporate inventory control and reduce page maintenance.

My only regret for my own pages is that I used .html and not .php for my static files. If I had used .php then I could add some dynamic features into the page later.

But just keep these thoughts aware before choosing a system that ties you into using their own frontend for product pages.

[Crazy_Fool]

something to be very aware of with shopping carts is that some simply cannot be spidered properly because they use session IDs in the URLs as well. even if the cart is advertised as having search engine friendly URLs, check for session IDs in the URL.

those most affected are those which are combined catalogue / shopping carts. the session ID is really only required to "maintain state" in the shopping cart part of it, so look for a "bolt on" shopping cart instead.

>>My only regret for my own pages is that I used .html and
>>not .php for my static files. If I had used .php then I
>>could add some dynamic features into the page later.

if you're on *nix with php, i believe you can parse .html files just the same as you parse .php files. ask in the *nix / php forum for more info. i do almost everything in php or asp these days so can't tell you any more about it myself.

[kjs50]

I'm moving to an ASP based shopping cart so I need to be IIS hosted. Otherwise there is a setting that can be done in Apache that can parse an html as a php file.

Is that how Webmaster World does their pages? I see that it is .htm but it must be dynamically generated.

Thanks.

[Crazy_Fool]

there are threads in the ASP forum where this has been discussed, so probably best to look back through old threads in there.