Search engines don't index my dynamic website

[phoe*nix]

What is the best way to get search engines, particularly google, to index dynamic content?

I've made a website which uses MySQL and PHP but google can't see the database content. I've read that google is OK with GET requests which is what my site uses. I've also read that a good way to see if a site is easily accessable to search engine robots is to use the lynx browser which i've tried. I can navigate my site fine with lynx but if i put "penally site:www.westwalesholidaycottages.co.uk", without the quotes, into google it won't find anything. Penally is a word which only appears in the database.

I know about mod_rewrite but unfortunately my host doesn't have it enabled :angry: . Has anyone used this? is there an alternative? I was thinking of moving hosts to one which does have it enabled if it was worth it.

Edit: I had an idea about mod_rewrite. the reason my host doesn't have it enabled is because it takes a lot of processing time. Is it possible to add something to the .htaccess file so that apache only translates the address for googlebot and other search bots?

Edit again: ignore my first edit, i realise that wouldn't work :s

Edited November 6, 2005 by phoe*nix

[teh h4x0r5]

Yes, mod_rewrite is the solution to this, and yes, you can add something to your .htaccess. However, I am not aware of a way to only rewrite URLs for Googlebot, but, why would it be a problem to rewrite them for users?

Post what you want the link to look like and where you want it to go to, and I will give you the appropriate .htaccess code. ;)

[GatorV]

I think you are mixed up about what does the Googlebot and other search engines index of your site.

Penally as you said it's only in the database, so in order for google to see it is to implement it in a webpage for example: www.westwalesholidaycottages.co.uk?p=penally and then make a link in your index, and in that page put the word penally, that way google will find it.

If you wan't to make a search for your site your best way is to program yourself one or make all of the content static and suscribe to google so google can search your site (only if is static).

[teh h4x0r5]

That's the whole point of mod_rewrite; it makes it so that dynamic content can be indexed.

[phoe*nix]

the point of redirecting only search bots is because mod_rewrite takes a lot of processing power because, i'm guessing here, everytime the server receives a request for say www.westwalesholidaycottages.co.uk/browse/b/1/pl/p it has to convert that to www.westwalesholidaycottages.co.uk/browse.php?b=1&pl=p. So my host has it disabled.

i realised redirecting only search bots wouldn't work.

in theory google should find penally because, on the first page there's a link to the browse page and from there, there is a link to searchresult.php?b=1&pl=p, where pl=p is a list of cottages where their names begin with p. penally would appear in that search result page.

the problem is, my host doesn't have mod_rewrite enabled. is there an alternative to using mod_rewrite?

[Garry]

  teh h4x0r5 said:

That's the whole point of mod_rewrite; it makes it so that dynamic content can be indexed.

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I think you'll find that this is *not* the whole point of mod_rewrite... Just one of its many uses.

[timjohns]

I know this has nothing to do with indexing.......but, for your heading image you've got that JS for deciding which image to load. What if the user has none of the widths that you have allowed for? Just a thought :-)

[andrewkendall]

I'm a big fan of mod_rewrite but I use it mainly for usability.

Since it's been implemented I've seen a noticeable rise in inbound links, people seem much more happy with linking the tidy URLs:

http://www.andrewkendall.com/pages/photogallery/742/9.php

vs

http://www.andrewkendall.com/pages/photoga...picturenumber=9

That said, I've never found a problem with Google indexing dynamic pages, especially since I started using Google Sitemaps.

i.e. "My Chemical Romance Pictures" shows up fine.

[Computer Guru]

sitemaps are the answer. just write a php script that automatically updates hte xml after every change.

[phoe*nix]

  Computer Guru said:

sitemaps are the answer. just write a php script that automatically updates hte xml after every change.

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Can you elaborate?

Can you add dynamic URLs to sitemaps? for example: <loc>http://www.westwalesholidaycottages.co.uk/housedetails.php?propref=llan</loc>

[phoe*nix]

ah ha! yes you can have dynamic URLs.

Still would be greatful for info on automatically updating the XML as well as any thoughts on making my website indexable to search engines.

[Computer Guru]

you have to write a PHP script that adds the link whenever a trigger occurs.

[dougal.s]

I'm in agreement with all the guys saying to *not* use ?foo=foo&foo2=foo2 etc.

Check out this tutorial on how to make clean URIs without mod_rewrite: http://www.evolt.org/article/Making_clean_...d_PHP/18/22880/.

Dougal.