How to do SEO with a MySQL/PHP Backend

[ep2012]

Hi there all,

I'm about to develop a site with a DB backend & I want to know how one goes about doing organic SEO if most of the site is DB driven.

There will be some text on the page, but certain things that are pulled from the DB, won't actually be in html/xhtml on the site.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks & have a great wknd.


Michelle

[flood6]

Well, if it is seen in a browser, it has to become HTML at some point. For example, this site is database-driven; right-click and look at the source. All the data is formatted into html by the scripting language (in this case php) and sent to the browser (SE spider). Browsers and spiders don't know the difference.

The SEO concepts will still be the same for a database site. When you're building the site, just keep these concepts in mind from the beginning to make your future optimization tasks easier.

[KeithO]

sites will still get spidered. this site is php driven and gets spidered quiet frequently. blogs are another example.

[hyperdog]

If you have content being displayed from the database that is not in html format, you can (create &) pull related html content and embed it in <noscript> tags for robots, screen readers, mobile devices, and older browsers to find.

Some debate continues on how well dynamic sites are indexed. I personally see a jump in traffic and indexing on sites once I implement modrewrite to divert .html requests to their .php equivalent (a request for the page site.com/Contact.html returns site.com/template.php?page=Contact).

Are these the sorts of tips you are looking for?

[eristoddle]

When I went from html pages to php/mysql is when my seo actually went into high gear. Using a db, you have the option of creating huge, category killer sites. My one tip is to learn mod rewrite. Despite the fact that Google says that they crawl dynamic pages, dynamic sites seem to be put on the back burner. I actually have a site where I left one part of it purely dynamic and used mod rewrite on the rest. The page that still has the dynamic url has no pagerank after the last pagerank update, while the rest of the pages on the site have pagerank assigned.

[incrediblehelp]

eristoddle,

How many parameters were in your URL string?

Can you post an example of the mod rewrite code you used?

[eristoddle]

Only one parameter. You can check it out here:
http://www.ware23.com/
Go to the "new" link on the menu at the top. PR0. The rest of the pages linked to by the menu are PR2.

[brian.mark]

Only one parameter. You can check it out here:
http://www.ware23.com/
Go to the "new" link on the menu at the top. PR0. The rest of the pages linked to by the menu are PR2.

PR means nothing. The page is indexed.

my long url

Brian.

<flood6 edit: fixed long url>

[incrediblehelp]

Only one parameter. You can check it out here:
http://www.ware23.com/
Go to the "new" link on the menu at the top. PR0. The rest of the pages linked to by the menu are PR2.

PR means nothing. The page is indexed.

return of the long url

Brian.

I agree PR in a toolbar means not much, but I will always be more confidant in a static URL string rather than a dynamic one. Of course I have seen ranking success and PR values bult up from both so I think it is fair to say this issue is from something else.

eristoddle where are your text oriented links to:

http://www.ware23.com/showpads.php?sort=Date

I am I am not just talking about a sitemap link.

<flood6 edit: fixed long url>

[alienzhavelanded]

PHP/MySQL sites get indexed for sure and as long as you follow optimization techniques this shouldn't be a problem for the original poster.

The debate has moved on to whether they get indexed (well) or not, and some have offered examples of database driven sites using dynamic URLs and suggesting use of mod_rewrite. While this is good, in my experience I've seen dynamic URLs rank just as well as a PHP/MySQL site that doesn't use them.