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SEO and Dynamic Pages
Why should you want to use
Active Server Pages or PHP and what's the difference? PHP is
a server-side scripting language that's cross-platform
compatible, embedded in HTML, lets you create dynamic web
pages on the fly for the UNIX (Linux) or Windows platform. It's
comparable to Active Server Pages which run on Windows
platforms. All you need to run PHP is for it to be installed
and enabled
on your server, and some PHP code in your page(s), saved
with the extension .php. Both platforms allow you to create
dynamic pages. Dynamic pages are executed by pulling data
off the server and creating pages 'on-the-fly' as they are
requested, instead of being parsed in the browser like
static pages. They are extremely quick and most of the
routine tasks associated with displaying content and
information can be automated.
The code is kept in text files on
the server and served up immediately into the browser as
it's requested. It's
extremely compact, just as powerful as ASP and can also be
used with databases (mySQL/postgreSQL). PHP is an open
source project of the Apache Software Foundation and doesn't
cost anything to use. If you're unfamiliar with the term
'open source', it means FREE! The advantage of using PHP is
that it can be run on UNIX and Windows (unlike .asp which requires a
third-party software solution to run on UNIX).
Active Server Pages (.asp) do basically
the same thing on Win platform. You can set up an Access
or SQL database to run with .asp on the server using
VBScript/JavaScript and increase the capabilities of your
web site to feed up information stored in databases to your
visitors on the fly.
One of the biggest differences between
using PHP and ASP is the cost. PHP and all things Linux are
open source and freely available for use by anyone
personally or commercially. And the good news
is that you don't have to be a programmer to make use of ASP
or PHP
scripts. If you can cut, paste and edit, you can learn use them
too.
Using PHP or ASP
applications on your server gives you many more options for
interactivity and information storage than static pages,
while speeding up your site in the process. It's not just
for programmers anymore. This is something anyone can learn
how to do.
Keep in mind that most search engines cannot index dynamic
pages or read information stored in a database, so if you're
optimizing your site for higher rankings, you also need
static, content-rich pages that include your targeted
keywords so the bots can crawl and index them. To be
effective, your static pages must be included in your site
map and linked in your navigation.
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