dynamic urls versus dynamic page content

Whats the difference , advantages , disadvantages

[malcolmcroucher]

What is the difference between dynamic urls and dynamic page content both do the same function? or am i mistaken?

dynamic url :

sets up a page with content on eg $state=california

a dynamic page

Will return the same result for $state=clifornia

so whats the advantages/ disadvantages for using either?

[PHP_Chimp]

The real answer comes down to personal preference. So here is my preference and the reasons for it -

The main difference is that a url with a query string may not be so well indexed by search engines. Although this isnt so much of an issue any more, however it was a few years ago (there are still SEO issues with dynamic pages, but if you want to know all of those you would be better asking in the SEO forum). The other problem is that the url doesnt look so clean. It is very easy to confuse people, so keeping url's looking nice is helpful for some.
i.e
somepage.html?p=something&a=another_thing
v.s
somepage/something/another_thing
The second one looks like a 'proper' url, we know the difference but a lot of people dont. People dont like all of the &'s and ='s and other characters that you get in a query string, it doesnt make for such clean reading.

So overall there are not really any advantages or disadvantages for either. There are problems and good points with both.

Dynamic pages may not be so well indexed by search engines. However Google & MSN handle them well, so not really much of a problem.
If you have a site structure that looks like -
products/blue_widgets/more_information.php
then if people want red widgets then they could take a guess at the url and try entering products/red_widgets/more_information.php into the address bar.

You may be surprised at the number of people who haven't realised that the browsers address bar is not part of your site. Why do you think that the goggle tool bar take information from the browser address bar when a 404/410 is encountered?

When designing anything I try to think of what a person with no knowledge would do. The address bar is a feature that everyone uses, so this is where they may try to enter information. If all they get is '404 that page doesnt exist' then they will get annoyed and leave. If you can try to cater for people using the address bar to navigate around your site then you may catch a few more customers (although if you run a site that is supposed to be for technically minded people then you may not actually want these customers ;))