PHP Session Variables and SEO Compatibility

[KMac]

Hey Everyone!

I'm new to Webmasterworld, and I'm hoping you guys can help me out a little bit.

I'm in the process of developing a niche directory in PHP/MySQL. The success of my directory is HIGHLY dependent on my SE rankings (obviously - as any directory is).

I need to know what my SEO restrictions are when using PHP. Particularly, I've read that it's the session variables that PHP assigns to each user (including search spyders) that are a big issue w/ Google indexing my pages properly. Is this true? If so, is there any way around this, and how would I go about it?

Also, I know that URLs are very important, and therefore I will have clean urls for all of my categories and subcategories. Example: www.mydomain.com/sub-category.php
BUT, for those on-the-spot searches that my web visitors may type into my dynamic search box, to find the service they're looking for, dynamically produced URLs will be impossible to avoid, right? And if I am right, what are the implications?

Will my site suffer trememdously in terms of SEO? And if I perform the necessary SEO tactics on all other pages, besides a dynamic search, will this be "good enough" so to speak?

Thanks for all replies in advance!

KMac

[jatar_k]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld KMac,

all the data on sessions is here
[php.net...]

you can make them use only cookies but then you shouldn't have the existence of the session be required on the site

You don't need to worry about after search urls as those won't be stored and spidered anyway.

[KMac]

Hey Jatar,

thank you for your help!

One more question for you...just want to be clear about what you said:
If I can make it so that my CMS does not assign session IDs at all (no need to put them in a cookie), that is the best scenario for my directory - correct?

And dynamic search urls are not stored at all by spiders? Wow, that's great to know (and a relief too).

Thanks so much again!

KMac

[jatar_k]

yes, no session ids at all would be preferable

the reason search urls are not stored is because the spider can't execute a search. It would have to type in a word and hit enter to get the search url.

[KMac]

Ahhh, I see. Makes perfect sense.

One more question:
My programmer mentioned to me that in order for the Session IDs to be turned off entirely, it needs to happen from my web hosting server. The authority for this to take place comes from my hosting account. Is that correct?

(I was under the impression that it could be done upon implementation of the CMS - during programming and customization).

?

Thank you!

KMac

[jatar_k]

just don't use them, they don't need to be explicitly disabled on your server. They are only used when your programmer starts using things like session_start()

sounds like your programmer is listening to what you say and not really understanding what you want

[KMac]

Sounds about right....I'm getting that feeling too. Maybe it's time to find someone else...

Thanks a million.