which code is most google friendly - asp, php, cfs?

seo question about asp, php, cfs

[pikeporter]

I'm hoping people could voice their opinions about the most google-friendly code. How and which scripts need to be re-written to be search engine friendly? which is most friendly after the code is re-written? for asp and php, what can be done to ensure that the resulitng pages are very google-friendly.

Thanks,

Pike

[eelixduppy]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld!

>>>for asp and php, what can be done to ensure that the resulting pages are very google-friendly.

The server-side scripting cannot be seen by Google, or anyone for that matter. You should make sure that the HTML code that those server-side technologies produce is properly constructed, however.

[pikeporter]

so when asp or php generate pages, do those pages remain in the site to become seasoned and searchable or do they disappear when someone leaves my site only to be generated again when the next viewer generates the page. If the latter, it doesn't seem like google would find them.

Now that I'm thinking furhter about it. Do the googlebots themselves generate the pages when searching so, though generated on the fly, seem to be static from a spider's perspective?

[jdMorgan]

All clients --browser or robots-- see is the server response, whether that response is served from a static "page" i.e. a file stored on the server's disk, or is generated on-the-fly by a script. To the client, there is no difference if the site is set up properly.

Down the road, you may become interested in yet another possibility: A static copy of a dynamic page, saved on disk and re-generated at intervals. This reduces the CPU load on the server, since it won't have to process the script for each and every HTTP request for a "page."

Jim

[Corey Bryant]

You also might take a look at [w3.org...] for some information.

-Corey

[pikeporter]

I'm having new website built. I asked the designer to make links crawlable by googlebots. For example:

http://example.com/idx/propdetails.asp?mlsid=812&location=1

to translate to something like

/propertydetails/Homes/Burlington/mls26010340."

The designer of my new site responded:

"Search engines do not care if your link is http://www.example.com/real_estate/listings/Condos/NH/Woodstock/521542 or http://192.168.0.1/idx/propdetails.asp?mlsid=812&location=1

as long as the link is valid and is located on a static page. Since the only static pages are your home page and search pages these are the pages you want your links on."

As I understand things, he is not correct. Could anyone shed light on his response?

[edited by: encyclo at 3:41 pm (utc) on Jan. 16, 2007]
[edit reason] examplified, see terms of service [/edit]

[encyclo]

The response is a developer's view, not incorrect in itself, but from a different perspective. You're asking about search-engine optimization, he's interested in search engine functionality. Yes, long dynamic URLs are handled well by search engines, but to optimize your chances - as well as the not insignificant usability advantages - are increased when using a clean URL structure.

[alphabeta]

This might help as a resource: [google.com...]

I have found that descriptive and precise file/category naming structure with .html or .htm extensions to work quite well. A PHP mod_rewrite may be used to achieve the .html extension while retaining the ability to pass variables and store sessions - look at how relationships.com does it (for full disclosure, I don't benefit by mentioning that domain name).

However you decide to create your website, it is important that you create a cron job (or build it into the functionality of the website) that builds and submits a google and yahoo sitemap.

A good resource for planning site layout (in case you're also figuring out that): [developer.yahoo.com...]

[mep00]

Search engines do not care if your link is http://www.example.com/real_estate/listings/Condos/NH/Woodstock/521542 or [192.168.0.1...]
In terms of SEO it make a big difference. Also, the former is much more user friendly, which is also very important.

as long as the link is valid and is located on a static page. Since the only static pages are your home page and search pages these are the pages you want your links on.

Not true. A blog post, for example, is a dynamically generated page, but since the article portion of is generally static, even though new comments are added over time and the information in a side bar might change, a search engine WILL crawl it (unless you tell it otherwise) and index it, which is what I assume you would want.

[maccas]

Also some people link to pages with the URL as the text link, /propertydetails/Homes/Burlington/mls26010340 with Homes and Burlington in the text link is better than /idx/propdetails.asp?mlsid=812&location=1

[pikeporter]

AlphaBeta writes: A PHP mod_rewrite may be used to achieve the .html extension while retaining the ability to pass variables and store sessions.

Does .asp also offer a mod_rewrite? I have not heard so.

Thanks

[mack]

I don't think you can really determine how friendly code is based on the scripting language. In many cases the actual scripting takes place in the "backend" what the search engine sees is the output from your scripts. Typically html.

The key is getting your url structure sorted out.

Mack.

[successlieswithme]

a script which shows urls without?
means you shd mod_reqrite

so opt for php

[DBSims]

I just installed ISAP_Rewrite from [isapirewrite.com...] and it is working great on my 2003 MS Server and ASPX pages are being changed to html pages.