Dynamic Site Mapping^TM (DSM) - The Dynamic Site Optimization Utility

Dynamic webpages simplify content management, streamline website generation and provide personalization features that cannot be replicated with purely static webpages. However, for years, search engine spiders were unable to index dynamic pages reliably. Thankfully, search engine technology has advanced and even complex dynamic URLs are appearing in the SERPs now. Still, in order for a search engine to successfully index your dynamic page, it needs three basic things:

1. The ability to process your URL. Search engine technology is improving daily; however, search engine representatives still recommend restricting dynamic URLs to two parameters or less.


2. The ability to access your content. Search engine spiders cannot enter values into forms, so any content that is accessible only through a form on your site is just one more part of the invisible web.


3. The ability to return to your page. Session IDs are great for human vistors, but spiders encounter problems if they cache a dynamic URL with a session ID. If that session ID times out, the indexed page will most likely point any search engine referrer to an error page and the search engine spider will be unable to return to your page for further spidering. For that reason, most search engine spiders do not cache dynamic URLs with session IDs.

Dynamic Site Mapping^TM fulfills these three basic needs by writing a dynamic site map with permanent, spiderable URLs for every dynamic webpage on your website that has been visited by a human, including content inside forms.

How does DSM work?

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To use Dynamic Site Mapping^TM, you need to add a few lines of DSM script to each of your dynamic webpages. Then, when a human visitor accesses the dynamic page, DSM will spider and cache your dynamic page. The cached dynamic URL will include all parameters. If your content is inside a form, DSM will even convert all post form URLs to get form URLs in the process to expose all of the parameters. However, to preserve security, we do not maintain session specific form data. Inside DSM, you can specify which parameters you want to remove from your dynamic URL to make the URL spiderable.

NOTE: You will need to add default settings or If statements to your code so that your dynamic webpage will load without the parameters you are removing.

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After DSM has spidered your dynamic pages, you can compile the Dynamic Site Mapping^TM pages to add to your website. The DSM pages look like search engine results and include direct links to your dynamic content using the optimized dynamic URLs. Search engine spiders can follow all of these links to index your dynamic content. Plus, since DSM records each time that a human visitor accesses your page, the most popular pages on your website are listed first to ensure that the most popular pages on your website get spidered and indexed as quickly as possible.

Additional DSM Features

Dynamic Site Mapping^TM can also help your human visitors access your dynamic content. Built into the DSM template is a search engine that searches DSM's cache of every dynamic page on your website. If you add the DSM script to every page of your site, you can even use DSM as a sitewide search tool for all of your dynamic and static content.

System Requirements for Dynamic Site Mapping^TM ™

DSM is compatible with all scripting languages, including HTML, SHTML, PHP, ASP and more. It also works with server side includes (SSI). All that is required is that you add a line of JavaScript or similar script (asp, php, cgi, etc.) on each web page that you would like to be indexed. Then add a folder on your root directory that contains the compiled DSM site map pages. All server activity occurs on the SEOToolSet^TM, so no server side scripts are required.

Copyright © 2004 Bruce Clay, Inc. All rights reserved.