There are misunderstandings and confusions in the Search Engine Optimization SEO world in regard to search engines indexing of dynamic web pages.
It has been claimed that search engine spiders dont index/crawl dynamic web pages well. This statement is only half true. The correct statement should be "Search engines dont index/crawl dynamic web pages well if the page URL contains "" without quotes character.". Search engines do index dynamic web pages very well if the page URL contains no "" characters.
URLs that contain "" are called dynamic URLs.
What web pages are dynamic
If you have knowledge about HTML, you know the web pages you create normally have .htm, or .html, file extension. These files are static because the HTML code dont change on the fly when requested and they are not processed by web servers. They can be viewed without using a web server.
A web page is said to be dynamic if it is created by using server-side scripting languages such as php, asp, jsp, perl, cgi and so on. These languages are like normal programming languages such as C++, Java, etc. The major difference is scripting languages cant be compiled beforehand. They can only be processed by web servers on the fly when the page is requested by a visitor. Dynamic pages cant be viewed without a web server.
When a dynamic page is requested, the web server first looks at the pages source code and if any server-side scripting code exist, it will process them and generate static HTML result. When processing of the full page has been completed, web server sends only pure HTML code to the web visitors browser.
Using scripting languages to create web pages gives you the power to do nearly anything you want. If the dynamic page has no "" character in its URL, search engine spiders treat the page the same as a normal HTML static page.
Query string parameters
When "" character is used, the pages full URL changes when values after "" change. The portion after "" is called the pages query string parameters, or simply query parameters. Every time when parameters changes, the resulted page will be different.
A page URL can contain more than one "" character. When this happens, search engine spiders will have difficult time to index the resulted page. If the page has only one "" character, major search engine spiders can crawl that page well. For example, Google can index and store a pages URL as http://www.examplesite.com/product.aspid=12345. But if the same pages URL is

http://www.examplesite.com/product.aspid=12345&category=23&page=3

Most search engines will not be able to index it well even though Googlebot and Yahoo! Slurp may be able to index it.
Note: Googlebot is Googles web-crawling robot. Yahoo! Slurp is Yahoos web-crawling robot. Search engine robots collect documents from the web to build a searchable index.
Yahoo help says
"Yahoo! does index dynamic pages, but for page discovery, our crawler mostly follows static links. We recommend you avoid using dynamically generated links except in directories that are not intended to be crawled/indexed e.g., those should have a /robots.txt exclusion."
Googles Webmaster Guidelines:
"If you decide to use dynamic pages i.e. the URL contains a "" character, be aware that not every search engine spider crawls dynamic pages as well as static pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them small."
Lets analyze what Google has stated above.
1. the URL contains a "" character: this means the definition of dynamic pages are those containing "" characters in URL.
2. keep the parameters short: this means the number of characters in each individual parameter should be short. There is no quantitative measurement given by Google but we can check some web forums to see examples. My Search engine friendly article http://www.webactionguide/action-guide/build-site/se-friendly.php referenced black hat seo discussion thread on Cre8ASiteForums. Its URL is http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/viewtopic.phpt=8386
This page was crawled by Google. The length of its query parameter is 4 characters. There are many other examples on the internet that have more characters and were crawled successfully. The maximum number of characters that can be accepted by Google is unknown.
3. keep the number of them small: this means we should keep the number of parameters in each URL as small as possible. The above Cre8ASiteForums example has one parameter.
At least now we can say Googlebot is able to crawl dynamic pages that have one query parameter and the number of characters in the parameter can be 4.
How to get your pages crawled if using query parameters are not avoidable
Query parameters are often used for database calls to retrieve stored information by using primary keys in one or more tables. Database Management System DBMS makes some tedious work easy to manage. When query parameters must be used for your site, consider build a site map page and hard code a pages URL. For example, the previous URL can be hard coded as

http://www.examplesite.com/product12345-23-3.asp

Hand code every dynamic page is time-consuming. If you use Apache web server, there is a Apache mod_rewrite module to help you http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_rewrite.html rewrite the requested URL to one with no "" character embedded on the fly.
Another mod rewrite resource site is www.modrewrite.com.
An interesting article on weberblog.com talked about a practical example of how Google successfully indexed a dynamic page after applying mod_rewrite module. The page originally had 17 characters in the query parameter.
Before rewrite: http://www.weberblog.com/article.phpsroty=20040419170030157
After rewrite: http://www.weberblog.com/article.php/20040419170030157
So, if your site is experiencing the same problem, hurry up and implement mod_rewrite now.

About The Author
Jerry Yu is an experienced internet marketer and web developer. Visit his site http://www.WebActionGuide.com for FREE "how-to" step-by-step action guide, tips, knowledge base articles, and more.

Participating in message boards forums discussions is a great way of self promotion. It costs you nothing. Not even a penny. All you have to do is allot sometime for this type of promotion.
Before you getting started you need to know some must follow principles. You want your time to be profitable for you. Right So what ever time you are gonna spend should bring you some profits.
What are those principles
***1. Target your promotion:***
If you are search engine optimization expert, then you will be benefited by search engine forums. People coming to those forums need help in their web site optimization. If you are willing to share your knowledge with those people, you will gain their confidence and needless to say few customers too.
***2. Always follow the forum rules:***
In some forums or some areas of forums self promotion is not allowed. At the same time, some sub-forums are alloted to post your product advertisement. So read carefully before posting your product details anywhere on the forum.
***3. Use signature files:***
Almost all the forums allow signature files. These may be less than 4 lines or less than some 250 characters. This varies from forum to forum. So be concise with your wording.
Most IMPORATNT advice is always offer something free in your signature file. Free report on how to increase sales, free email course on how to design a web site that pulls orders or any topic that focuses on your web site theme. This always beats keeping your product price in your signature file. You can built your opt-in list too.
In signature files DONT hide URL with Click here as link text. Let people accustom to your web site name or your product name. If you just use as Click here instead of SEO tips and tricks, it looks dull and less interesting.
***4. Change the heading while answering a question:***
If somebody ask a question like - What are web site promotion methods.
In reply you can change the heading to what ever you want instead of Re:What are web site promotion methods
You can keep an interesting heading to make your post prominent from others. Like FOUR best methods to start with... or Advertising with out spending a penny. etc. These type of headings certainly attracts peoples eyes.
***5. Give respect to others opinions:***
Dont say harsh words even though you know what other person saying is wrong. Be polite. What you want to say tell it clearly and concisely.
If you dont know a topic still you want to comment on that, add in my opinion..., as far i know... etc. Point out to resources if you know any.
***6. Follow up the thread:***
If you start participating in a thread, then check the box that says Email Notification. When ever somebody replies your question, email will be sent to you. So you can post a reply or follow others answers and opinions.
What is the use of this =You may end up with learning something from that discussion =It could be a topic for your next ezine article or ebook or a report =You can get to know of people of that thread
***7. Every day allot some time:***
Save the forum URLs in your favorites folder. Everyday try to visit them regularly. By this you can know the what is going on around you. You may know good resources and free information links that are useful to you. If you come across any information that is useful to you save them on your computer.

About The Author

Radhika Venkata - Subscribe to EbookBiz Magazine which is completely focused on ebook business and Internet Marketing. Receive FREE Ebooks with Resale rights every month!

http://www.ebooks-world.com/freetosell.shtml

Webmaster Resources: List Your product, ezine or web site free! http://www.webmasters-central.com/

Branding versus search engine optimization is a marketing dilemma that larger companies will need to come to grips with on the Internet. Often companies will need to decide whether to promote their own brand name as their main keyword phrase or optimize for a more generic keyword phrase.
For instance, one search engine report states that 1.3 million visitors per month search for the term "Best Buy." This same report states that the term "electronics" is searched for by 1.1 visitors per month. The obvious choice in this scenario is for Best Buy to optimize for their own brand name first and the word "electronics" second.
But, take a competitor such as Frys Electronics. Approximately 95,000 visitors search for the term "Frys" every month, far short of those who search for "electronics". Does this mean Frys Electronics a partner with Outpost.com should optimize for "electronics" first and Frys and/or Outpost.com second
At this writing August 2004, a search on Google for "electronics" will show that Best Buy does not show up in the first two pages. Frys Outpost.com is on the third page. But lets take a further look to see who is in the number 1 position: Sony. And Samsung is a close second.
Sony, with 450,000 searches per month for the word "sony", has managed to grab the number one spot for its brand name and the generic word "electronics". A search of the Sony homepage source code will reveal that this page is optimized for both words, "Sony" and "electronics." By optimizing for both words Sony has grabbed a lot of traffic neglected by Best Buy and perhaps even exceeds Best Buys traffic in doing this.
Another issue in branding is trademark infringement. Courts have upheld that websites using another companys branded name in its meta tags is engaging in trademark infringement. For instance, a site about cats would be infringing if it put the name Best Buy in its meta tags in hopes of gaining traffic from this trademarked word. Large companies have to protect themselves from others stealing traffic that is rightfully theirs. These companies cannot however protect a generic term such as "electronics" as that is fair game for all electronics companies.
So in order to create the largest return on investment, large companies need to optimize their websites both for their own brand names and for the generic, high-traffic keywords and keyword phrases relevant to their sites. Otherwise, they are letting tons of online business just slip away.

About The Author

Copyright © 2004 SEO Resource

http://www.seoresource.net

Kevin Kantola is the CEO of SEO Resource and has published many articles over the past 20 years.

Many Internet marketers wonder how they spend less time marketing their website so they can focus on delighting their clients and developing better marketing strategies to improve sales.
They often ask:

How can I be efficient as possible so that I dont waste time and money
How can I spend less time on activities so that I dont like e.g. marketing and sales and more time on activities I love. e,g. delighting customers, improving sales materials and products
Every time I get busy with clients, marketing falls behind, so I end up with a "feast or famine" cycle. How can I avoid the frustration of being swamped with sales one month and famished the next
How can I get prospects, leads, customers, signups, and referrals come to me instead of having to chase them
How can I build a substantial "contact list", fast, and manage it effectively
How can I organize my contacts, in one palce and build lasting relationships with them
How can I turn visitors into qualified leads automatically -- instead of losing them to my competition
How can I follow-up with my prospects and turn them into paying customers, even if I am on holiday
How do I organize my ad-copies/sales materials all in one place, and use them whenever I need -- from any computer, anywhere in the world
How do I schedule an update/mailing for a future date, and have it delivered even if I am not in front of my computer
How do I know which advertising is pulling better results for me
How do I know the cost of getting a prospect, and the cost of getting a paying customer
How do I know what my time is exactly worth

One answer to the above questions is to develop "Automatic Marketing Systems" that do your marketing for you while you do other things.
Marketing automation and CRM customer relationship management is not just for big corporations -- it must be implemented to your marketing even if you run a home-based business or promote an affiliate program.
When your marketing is effective and runs on auto-pilot, you enjoy a number of benefits:

You spend more time on the tasks that you like to do, which usually are those that got you into the business in the first place.
Clients come to you, and already know about your products, services, or an opportunity, so you dont have to chase them.
While youre busy delighting current clients, youre still getting the word out about your services, so you can smooth out the "feast or famine" cycle that plagues so many Internet marketers.
You get leverage to grow your business faster.

Marketing is a science.
Everybody has a marketing system -- manual or automated. Yet, all results are not equal. Some marketers emerge as giants, and others, including those that started marketing at the same time as the giants, either give up and go out of business or struggle to stay afloat.
Why What are the variables that make a difference in the same thing
Ill tell you why...
The successful ones are better able to relate the needs of the marketplace by using the right automation tools and analytics -- which helps them save time and money and make good judgments.
Tools To Automate Your Web Business:
There are several affordable from $20/month to $149/month Marketing automation websites/services that can help small business owners automate parts of their marketing chores and save time and money and increase your return on investment ROI.
Some websites do part of the automation for you like follow-up auto-responders, and ad-tracking services -- but very few will satisfy all of the above concerns for a small business Internet marketer all in one place.
A service specifically targeted towards small businesses, home-based entrepreneurs, and affiliate marketers will be www.iMediatools.com.
iMediatools provides a solution to all of the above concerns that is affordable $39.99/ month and practical for Internet Marketers. You can even try the full version for a period of 15 days before you get the Enterprise version.
Having total control over your marketing, lists, databases, and leads pays off thousand times over.

About The Author

Abe Cherian is the owner of Multiple Stream Media and publisher of weeklytips.com newsletter, where you will find hundreds of Internet business building tips. Visit www.weeklytips.com to read more tips like this one.
submitnotify@weeklytips.com

The basic principles used successfully by brick and mortar storefronts in moving your potential clients through a successful sales process is also the most effective way on the web.
But how
You do this by following the five step process in your marketing strategy by attracting potential clients, building trust, helping them choose the right product, presenting the product, and then closing the sale.
Step One- Marketing / prospecting:
Prospecting is the delivery of qualified visitors to your website. It can be achieved by many forms, such as, search engine marketing, pay-per-clicks, and e-mail advertising that draw people to your site.
Once they are there, its your responsibility to show them how your product can fill the void in the marketplace and what sets your product apart from the rest. Deliver your Unique Selling Proposition, USP.
Step two- Building trust:
Just like in a brick and mortar business where you greet a person when they walk in the door or physically help them find what they are looking for, you can build trust by doing similar things on your website by the elements that surround the design and development of your website.
Your visitor is unconsciously judging your credibility by asking themselves the following questions:

Does the website have the feel and look of a legitimate company
Is it easy to find the company contact information
How is the copy on the site
How fast does it download, and are there any broken links
Is there a privacy policy posted on the site
Is it easy to navigate

Step three- Help the buyer:
If you have done your prospecting right, the visitors coming to your website are hoping to find a solution to their problem. The solution can be a product or a service. Internet marketing studies show that 7 out of 10 visitors are ready to buy. They are only looking for a vendor who they find more helpful.
Ask yourself these questions:

Are you helping your visitors to identify and find the solution to their problem
Are you guiding them to find the solution by easy to find information, and navigation

Step four- Present the product:
Before you present your product, make sure that you have already helped the buyer by identifying with their needs in the previous stage. When you present your product or service to your visitor be sure to keep their attention and their interest by motivating them to continue with the sale.
Step five- Successfully close the sale:
Look at each of the products that you offer and ask yourself these questions:

Are you assuring them by giving guarantees
Does your description answer all their questions
Are you giving them feed back and testimonials from your clients
Do you take credit cards, if so which ones
What happens after they purchase

Take the guess work out of the purchase process.
If you court your visitors by the five steps above, youll see better conversions, and increased profits.

About The Author

Abe Cherian is the owner of Multiple Stream Media and publisher of weeklytips.com newsletter, where you will find hundreds of Internet business building tips. Visit www.weeklytips.com to read more tips like this one.
submitnotify@weeklytips.com

Suppose you were offered 263 links coming into your website from 263 other websites all in one fell swoop. Everybody knows that the more inbound links you have, the higher you will rise in the search engine rankings.
Suppose further that these were real links from real websites that actually sold real products and services

We all know by now that content is king. In order to effectively market your products or services and to establish yourself as a leader in your industry, writing and distributing articles is the way to go. One of the primary benefits of getting your content rich articles indexed in the search engines is so that you can increase your websites

Welcome to part eight in this search engine positioning series. Last week we discussed website submissions. In part eight we will be covering the importance of link building and developing inbound links to your website.
This is arguably on of the most important aspect of the SEO process and can mean the difference between first page rankings and 100th. It has to be done right and it has to be done on an ongoing basis.
Over this series we will cover the ten key aspects to a solid search engine positioning campaign.
The Ten Steps We Will Go Through Are:

Keyword Selection http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/keywords.htm
Content Creation http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/content.htm
Site Structure http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/structure.htm
Optimization http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/optimization.htm
Internal Linking http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/internal-linking.htm
Human Testing http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/human-testing.htm
Submissions http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/submissions.htm
Link Building
Monitoring
The Extras

Step Eight

Articles get exposure for me and my website. If you want to bring a continuous stream of highly targeted traffic to your website,then you should write articles related to your business. Write about topics you have learned about and are learning more about. Make it useful and informative. Don

Many business owners and online marketing experts focus their efforts on search engine optimisation and ensuring high search engine placement for a website. Although search engines should play a crucial part in any online marketing campaign they are but one element to that equation.
Although they are unlikely to send as much traffic to your website as search engines, directories are an essential online resource that need to be considered when developing your online marketing plan.
Directories differ from search engines in a few ways though the most important ones are as follows:

Directories usually have some form of human involvement in the editorial process
Because of the above there is a quality check in place
Because of the above fewer sites will get listed
Because of the above the quality of traffic from them will be higher

Surfers use directories differently to search engines. With a search engine a user would normally just enter in a phrase and hope for the best. With a directory the user is encouraged to drill down to the relevant area and select the appropriate category from a list.
This means that visitor who comes to your website from a directory is far more likely to convert into a customer as they will already have a greater understanding of the products and services you provide. Whereas those coming from search engines may simply have matched your website to three of four words in a phrase.
Directories are often categorised on a regional basis or by industry sector which means that visitors finding your website via a directory are more likely to be relevant potential customers and therefore will be easier to convert into clients.
So - dont rule out attracting traffic using directories as part of your online marketing campaign. It is an essential element in the over all online marketing mix.
Mike Cheney
www.magnet4web.com

About The Author
You can get free access to lots more of my articles plus a FREE Special Report "How To Turn Your Website Into A Customer Magnet" worth a value of