[thelist] Re: Search engines and dynamic content

[Marcia Welter]

Even if Google puts dynamic pages into the index, how they rank for search
terms is quite another story. They do have the capability, but unless
they've got Page Rank and some degree of optimization, the won't be found.
People look for phrases and pages have to come up under searches for them.
Being *in* the index doesn't mean a thing - all the PR0 pages are, but
they're at the bottom.

The category headings and the word poster at the top of the pages are
graphics - and there's no evidence to prove that alt tags, while indexed by
some, are worth near as much as text headers done proportionately from H1 to
H4 or H6. So this is the extent of the text that there is to be indexed on
those pages. Ccontact doesn't relate to searches and would have to be
spammed up like when preparing Inktomi optimized pages. :-)

Hope it's ok if I copy and paste some text from a few the static pages, but
I believe it's important to demonstrate a point.

Movies page:
Please note that these posters are REPRINTS, not originals.
Music page:
Click to view a featured poster below, or browse alphabetically on the left.
Television page:
Click to view a featured poster below, or browse alphabetically on the left.
Humor page:
Click to view a featured poster below, or browse alphabetically on the left.

Point made. With that little text and percentage wise more text being the
navigation and other elements which repeat on all of the pages, as well as
identical code, search engines might be inclined to interpret that they're
dynamically generated "cookie cutter" pages. That is enough for search
engines to flag for spamming with duplicate content on inter-linked interior
site pages. Not all of Google's PR0 penalty came from linking to link farms
and FFAs. There HAVE been people penalized for duplicate content within the
site.

I personally wouldn't count on those to rank without adding more volume of
individualized, optimized text; I'd add text for sure as well as optimizing
with H2 and H3 tags and page titles.

>From the Overture keyword selection help page,
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
keeping in mind that they lump together plural and singular, and in this
case people would more than likely search for plural though it's not a bad
idea to have both if it's possible:

Number of Overture searches:

81124  movie posters - 1,080,000 pages returned at Google. That page won't
hack it.
3435  old movie posters  - only 334,000 to compete against - easy as pie,
but there's no page optimized for it, and ideally they should be on separate
pages for maximum results so the phrases aren't diluted.

1453 searches for grateful dead posters - not many, but only 43,200 pages at
Google competing for the Deadhead market for those items. Not only can't the
Dead page be located from the static pages, but this is what the URL looks
like:

http://www.moviepostershop.com/people_sub.php?action=displayitem&cat=18&code
=6692&type=1

How will anyone searching for them at search engines know that those posters
are on the site? How will the search engines know? Will it be ranked and
found?

If there's a big budget, an option is Inktomi's Direct Feed program. You pay
and they don't care what the URLs look like. Doesn't help with Google, but
MSN is OK as long as the PPC isn't loaded first, and with AOL.

I'd add text and rewrite the URLs, at least down to 2 parameters so they can
be hand submitted some places. I rest my case.

Marcia
www.welterweb.com

Addendum as food for thought:

Overture Searches done in February 2002
Count Search Term
 283089  poster
 81124  movie poster
 21524  music poster
 20293  rap poster
 14045  art poster
 13232  hip hop poster
 12272  free poster
 12014  vintage poster
 9900  poster frame
 9175  sports poster
 8873  poster art
 7845  black light poster
 7240  all poster
 6666  marijuana poster
 6350  wanted poster
 6271  car poster
 5848  celebrity poster
 5765  framed art poster
 5473  basketball poster
 5457  poster print
 4594  rock poster
 4318  wolf poster
 4177  motivational poster
 4138  sport poster
 3986  poster printing
 3854  lord of the ring poster
 3554  propaganda poster
 3544  art poster print
 3435  old movie poster
 3417  anime poster
 3398  wall poster
 3305  jazz poster
 3285  madonna poster
 3187  safety poster
 3175  jennifer lopez poster
 3153  world war 2 poster
 3144  concert poster
 2997  britney spear poster
 2959  harry potter poster
 2938  wrestling poster
 2932  poster and print
 2883  star war poster
 2701  film poster
 2631  movie poster frame
 2609  world war 1 poster
 2538  fine art poster
 2536  josh hartnett poster
 2525  michael jordan poster
 2393  print poster
 2366  vintage movie poster
 2297  buy poster
 2250  nude poster
 2242  war poster
 2232  model poster
 2205  antique poster
 2165  scarface poster
 2159  olympic poster
 2138  beer poster
 2057  inspirational poster
 2050  disney poster
 2042  spider man poster
 2000  soccer poster
 1977  four poster bed
 1882  christian poster
 1872  pink floyd poster
 1869  poster for sale
 1867  band poster
 1864  fantasy poster
 1838  dolphin poster
 1833  hockey poster
 1784  poster online
 1774  military poster
 1752  french poster
 1731  funny poster
 1730  linkin park poster
 1720  2 pac poster
 1713  poster design
 1704  bob marley poster
 1687  boxing poster
 1631  animal poster
 1627  vin diesel poster
 1609  alien poster
 1593  mardi gras poster
 1589  cheap poster
 1581  world war ii poster
 1576  football poster
 1561  baseball poster
 1542  horror movie poster
 1534  beatles poster
 1533  shakira poster
 1523  poster printer
 1521  tupac poster
 1470  allen iverson poster
 1463  print and poster
 1460  uncle sam poster
 1455  sexy poster
 1454  wwf poster
 1453  grateful dead poster
 1446  classic movie poster
 1414  buy poster online