Forum Moderators: buckworks
I was wondering about this, and thought this would be the best place of getting an opinion.
I have been building static html sites for ages now and have mangaged to get some good success with my previous sites and get great results on most search engines..google a bit lower ranked but not too bad to worry a great deal...
If you had the time/money/patience (which i pretty much do at the moment) would you prefer to build html ecommerce sites, being able to customise your product pages exactly how you want them, without any restrictions of a template and the added benefit of being "tastier" for spiders or go for a database solution.
Dead interested in your views and opinions. Don't know any php/mysql which seems to be the flavour of the month! What is the easiest way of migrating from static e-commerce sites to php/mysql, any software/programs that are good to use? Suggestions/comments welcome.
Cheers
Richard
I've made it all using straight html by hand. This is A) I only know html and a little js, B) i was concerned about how well search engines can read the dynamically created pages that a database system provides. As we are an internet only retailer, we have to rely heavily on organic SE traffic to make ends meet and i'm unsure as to how effective a database site would be in terms of getting indexed etc.
Is it a case of simpler is usually better? Or should a site made with click cart pro or something like that be read by search engines with no problems?
Rich
I have to say that my HTML sites outperform the database site, but that is just because it is so new and not really the way I want it to be.
The beauty of a database driven store is that it is easy to change everything in one move, something that would take hours any other way. You can also customize your site to make it more SE friendly, take out the CGI-BIN from the URL etc etc.
If you are selling only a few products, then just stick to a simple HTML site. A database would be overkill for a small site.
Just my 2 cents worth ...
I am crazy never mind...
Two things to keep in mind, from my experience. 1) Either use mod_rewrite or keep those variables at 2 at the most in the url. All of our pages have been indexed and we do not use mod_rewrite, but there are no more than 2 variables. I''ve read in this forum several times (and I'm pretty sure Google_Guy has said) that Google has no problems indexing urls that have 2 or less variables.
2) You still gotta build static pages! The main *problem* I've found with dynamic sites is lack of PageRank. Build a few static/content pages a week to keep building up your PR.
Some interesting views here...
Looking around, i think i would experiment with Clickcart Pro first as it seems relatively easy to set up with no knowledge of any database scripting.
I was just checking the urls on their demo store and they were HUGE, full of stuff i don't understand...I take it this is bad for SE's then?
We have website that is purely done in ASP. We have a pagerank of 6. Are you saying that if it was static it would poosibly have a higher page rank?
My URLs aren't nasty either. They look something like this
mywidgets.co.uk/greenwidgets.php
I then tell the db to select all the products in the category 'greenwidgets'. I just update the db and leave the pages alone.
I didn't know any php when I started the site but have found it not too difficult, and invaluable.
Go get the mysql book by Paul DuBois, a good book on php, and take a few weeks to work through them and experiment with concepts. Then sit down and redesign your site.
There's some tools available for Windows out there, let me know if you'd like to know which. But I'm porting my site over to PHP and Smarty and will be doing the same thing with that.
I basically loop through the database and write eac product page to a static file.
Database sites are greater for easier maintenance and better tracking.
But static is loved by search engines..
1. limit your the number of url variables.
2. Use proper seo
3. Name your folders/files in seo style.
Database sites are greater for easier maintenance and better tracking.But static is loved by search engines..
This is a false dichotomy. There is no need to compromise any aspect of SEO because you have a database backed site. True, some database backed sites do suck because they are designed they way they are. But that is completely the fault of the designer. Others are indistinguishable from static sites.
That is the only real difference to a search engine.
There is no need to sacrifice organic search engine performance when using a database backend as long as you don't pass too many variables. - That seems to be the summary of what is being said.
Ok, so let's talk practically: How would a relatively successful/accomplished web designer who has a firm grounding in building html sites go about building a new database driven site that will appear correctly for SEO purposes. Which software? Will i have to mod some code? If i'm restricted as to how many variables i can pass to the web page from the database, what sort of things can i store and change easily in the db? If anyone resquests it, I will send them a sticky with my latest two urls so you can see the type of sites i'm creating....and you may offer your advice accordingly if you like?
Rich
Here are some links:
Scripting:
[php.net...]
DB:
[mysql.com...]
Apache:
[apache.org...]
mod_rewrite
[httpd.apache.org...]
[mysite.com...] is really
[mysite.com...] you could also do
[mysite.com...] mod_rewrite to
[mysite.com...]
green_widgets and 1 are both usable as a unique identifier that will pull all other product/page/category related information from the database.
I use this method to create pages that look like static pages, but are dynamically generated from the database. :)
Elijah
Having said all that, I've started using a database for some of my items. I have one item with over 12 thousand possible combinations, and hard coding all that on the various pages was a real PITA. And, hard coding all those items created huge, very slow loading pages. Now, for that item alone you get a database driven page, and I can present my customer will all the possibilities in a matter of seconds.
The short answer, use the right tools for the right job. If you use the tools correctly, you shouldn't have to worry about the SE aspects.
I had looked at this problem for over 2 years before settling down on litecommerce. Originally, we had web sites written completely in static html. However, I could see no difference between the ranking achieved by the static catalog compared to the original static pages.
You can write a HTML site and just database buy now buttons with a program like OSCommerce, this I intend to do as the customer support modules are superb.
With HTML pages I can tweak them as desired to gain a higher placing. I hope.
With HTML pages I can tweak them as desired to gain a higher placing. I hope.
There is no reason you can't tweak dynamically created page too. Let's say your application uses the product name to generate a title tag:
Widgets - My Site
It would be no problem to add another database field that allows you to override that title formula if it is not blank. For example:
Widget & Golden Widgets - My Widget Site
So you can retain the ability to customize certain pages without giving up the time saving and consistency benefits that using templates gives.
The advantage of using this system is that if you find you get higher click throughs with a certain format of title tag, you can change your formula in one place. With html pages you would have to hand edit every single page. The same can be done for meta tags, text descriptions, etc....
Unless you want a site with pages that don't use a consistent navigation structure and design, I still don't think that there is any additional edge that you can get from static html pages.
