php/mysql & SEO

php/mysql affecting seo rank

[mjt_AG]

Hello, newbie here. Searched around for an answer but couldn't find one. My bad if I'm missing the concept completely.

Anyways, will using php/mysql for db queries and as a dynamic web app affect how the spiders look at the site?

I mean, it is always recommended to not use flash as the home page because spiders can't read flash or javascript.

Does the same apply to php/mysql based sites? Or does it not matter because they are server side and spiders act like a client side browser?

Meaning php/mysql would not matter at all to the spiders because all the information the queries and tables display are readable by the spider (by not being flash or any other scripting display).

Thanks

[jatar_k]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld mjt_AG,

Or does it not matter because they are server side and spiders act like a client side browser?

exactly right, spiders see what browsers see. Though there are things that can choke spiders even with server side languages. Long query strings in the url is a big one. Preferably, you want clean url's with no variables tacked onto the end at all.

bad
www.site.com/page.php?page_id=123&cat_id=234&section=6

good
www.site.com/page1.php
www.site.com/page2.php
etc...

You also have to be careful of session ids tacked onto urls. Essentially the transfer of data between client and server has some dos and don'ts which are easier to design well in the beginning than redesign later.

[mjt_AG]

Thanks for the reply.

I will definitely keep in mind the clean url for pages that I would like to rank high and keep pages w/ vars. to specific queries.

Also, is there a post explaining good php practices with regards to SEO?

Thanks

[gbaker123]

One other thing you might want to consider is using MOD_rewrite with apache to make your dynamic pages look like the are static. I did this and google indexes 1000's of pages now.