SEF – Search Engine Friendly
SEO – Search Engine Optimization
Search engines create their databases from running programs that search the web and scan each web-page, and sometimes, they cache the web-page (Cache — meaning they download a copy of it). They sort these pages out, assumingly, by URL (that http://www.whatever.com string in the Address bar).
URLs that are dynamic, meaning they are using GET variables. Example:
http://mullerdigital.com/examples/dynamic_to_static_url/?name=Bob&location=Havana
The above example isn’t that bad in terms of what a search engine can handle. But is a bit confusing to Search Engine’s. They see a difference between the above URL and the following URL:
http://mullerdigital.com/examples/dynamic_to_static_url/?location=Havana&name=Bob
But there isn’t. The URL is different, but it’s the same page. But a search engine would classify those as two different pages. This is a very basic reason of what faults dynamic URLs have with search engines. Therea are a lot of other reasons, but they are far too complicated to get into.
The part that truly makes the URL above dynamic, is we can set the values of the URL and it effects the page itself.
http://mullerdigital.com/examples/dynamic_to_static_url/?location=London&name=Jen
Those values, location and name, can be any value, and they’ll be written in the correct location on the page.
That’s why there is the method of making the above dynamic-link a static link, but still just as dynamic (confusing, but it’ll make sense in a second).
http://mullerdigital.com/examples/dynamic_to_static_url/Havana/Bob.htm
Now, there is no directory ‘Havana’ and there is no file ‘Bob.htm’… This is all dynamic. The directory ‘Havana’ can be any value, and the page ‘Bob.htm’, can be any value too.
http://mullerdigital.com/examples/dynamic_to_static_url/Glasgow/Laura.htm or
http://mullerdigital.com/examples/dynamic_to_static_url/123123/9837429.htm
The above link is the same as this link:
http://mullerdigital.com/examples/dynamic_to_static_url?location=123123&name=9837429
This is very common practice now, and should be a standard on most sites. It really will improve clarity for your site when a Search Engine bot surfs by your site.