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Search Engine Optimization Tips and Tricks – Learn how to increase visibility in Search Engines – Part 30 – Dynamic URL vs. Static URL – Part 2

ashish — Wed, 05 May 2010 18:11:20 +0000

In the previous article (Google and Static vs. Dynamic URL’s), we talked about how Google had put out a post that claimed that users should not try to go in for URL rewriting to convert their dynamic into static URL’s, given the many issues that could happen if this rewriting does not work properly; further, the Google Search engine is starting to index these dynamic URL’s. However, in the rest of this article, we will talk about how getting static URL’s is indeed a target to achieve, and there are many benefits of doing so.
- The part about Dynamic URL’s being easily indexed is partially correct, and that too only for Google, with not too many claims from the other search engines about being so easily able to index dynamic URL’s
- These dynamic URL’s can be pretty long, with strange characters, and are not easily human readable.
- The static URL’s are easily readable, and make sense for users, since if you are following previous advice, the best effort is to ensure that your URL already contains keywords, and hence users can easily make out what the subject of the post will be from the URL
- Given that the dynamic URL’s are longer, there is a higher chance of these URL’s getting clipped when they are shared (through email, chat, etc). A clipped URL will not work, reducing the chance that readers will come to these pages
- A dynamic URL with a mixture of characters, question marks, etc cannot be easily used in marketing campaigns, when compared to a static URL that is short and easy to market
- When a dynamic URL is used in links from other sites (in cases when the other site uses the URL itself as the anchor text), the keyword contained as a part of the URL will increase search engine value
- It has been demonstrated in the past that static URL’s have a higher click through rate, since when a user sees the URL, they are able to identify the contents to some degree, and if they are interested, they will click through
- It is fairly easy to construct static URL’s without doing any kind of rewriting, on common blogging platforms such as Blogger, and WordPress
- If you are using other platforms where there is no automatic way of generating static URL’s, then you need to be much careful about using solutions for URL rewriting

Search Engine Optimization Tips and Tricks – Learn how to increase visibility in Search Engines – Part 29 – Dynamic URL vs. Static URL – Part 1

ashish — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 17:59:24 +0000

There has always been a case made about using static URL’s in your site, rather than using the dynamic URL’s that are generated by many web applications. In 2008, Google came out with a statement that they have greatly improved their indexing of dynamic URL’s, and that the chance that people might not get the URL rewriting correct when they seek to convert dynamic URL’s to static URL’s is fairly high. As a result, people might start thinking that it is better to let dynamic URL’s remain as they are. Here is a link to the Google page which discusses Dynamic vs. Static URL’s (link)

While static URLs might have a slight advantage in terms of clickthrough rates because users can easily read the urls, the decision to use database-driven websites does not imply a significant disadvantage in terms of indexing and ranking. Providing search engines with dynamic URLs should be favored over hiding parameters to make them look static.
Fact: We can crawl dynamic URLs and interpret the different parameters. We might have problems crawling and ranking your dynamic URLs if you try to make your urls look static and in the process hide parameters which offer the Googlebot valuable information. One recommendation is to avoid reformatting a dynamic URL to make it look static.

Myth: “Dynamic URLs are okay if you use fewer than three parameters.”
Fact: There is no limit on the number of parameters, but a good rule of thumb would be to keep your URLs short (this applies to all URLs, whether static or dynamic). You may be able to remove some parameters which aren’t essential for Googlebot and offer your users a nice looking dynamic URL. If you are not able to figure out which parameters to remove, we’d advise you to serve us all the parameters in your dynamic URL and our system will figure out which ones do not matter. Hiding your parameters keeps us from analyzing your URLs properly and we won’t be able to recognize the parameters as such, which could cause a loss of valuable information.

Does that mean I should avoid rewriting dynamic URLs at all?
That’s our recommendation, unless your rewrites are limited to removing unnecessary parameters, or you are very diligent in removing all parameters that could cause problems. If you transform your dynamic URL to make it look static you should be aware that we might not be able to interpret the information correctly in all cases. If you want to serve a static equivalent of your site, you might want to consider transforming the underlying content by serving a replacement which is truly static.

Does this matter to people who do Search Engine Optimization. Surprising, it does not matter. Even though there is this clear message from Google, they still advocate the use of static URL’s rather than using dynamic URL’s, and I will cover those reasons in detail in the next post.

Differences between Facebook Fan Page and Groups ? Which is better ?

ashish — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:16:03 +0000

Well, there is no easy way to determine the right answer for the last question above – “Which is better”. I know that most people detest an answer which starts with “It depends”, but it is true in this case. It depends on what you are trying to promote, what is the level of response and involvement you are looking at, and so on. So, let’s do some evaluation of the differences between a Facebook Fan Page and a Facebook Group.
1. The way that Fan Pages and Groups are setup (including their privacy settings) are different. Fan Pages, when they started out, were modeled after the concept of they being the representation of the fans of a artist, a musician, a rock band, and so on. A group allowed the administrator to set higher levels of privacy, including this being secret, and was more like a club.
2. Groups are meant for a more closer or intimate level of interaction, such as being able to see who the administrator of the Group is, being able to view the profiles of the group members, and so on. On the other hand, you can hide the name of the administrator of the Fan Page, and the profile information of members is also hidden. As a result, a Fan Page allows a viewer to maintain privacy while reading the information on the Fan Page.
3. Groups cannot have additional information added to the pages through applications, while Fan Pages allow you to extent the functionality through the use of external third party applications. As the number of such applications increases, this becomes more important.
4. Groups are not available to non-Facebook users, while Fan Pages are visible to non-Facebook users, letting a greater number of people get access to these posts and find these results through searches.
5. However, since the apparent involvement of users with Facebook Groups is greater, any update sent to the group is displayed more prominently on the user’s profile in the case of a Group rather than in a Fan Page
6. The level of statistics provided in a Fan Page is far greater than that in a Group, and if you are interested in doing a number of statistical analysis of your readers, then a Fan Page will be more useful.
(to be contd..)

Benefits of creating a Facebook Group for your blog / site promotion

ashish — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:08:20 +0000

It has always been said that if you want to promote a blog or site on Facebook, then you should create a Facebook Fan Page (read these posts on how to optimize using Facebook – article1, article2), however, also consider the advantages that a Facebook Group can bring to your efforts. Here are some important points about a Facebook Group:
1. A group is a very good way to promote your blog / site, since you can add your blog name, logo, and interests in the design of the Facebook Group. Further, you can even add information about what your blog is all about, what are its unique points, and so on.
2. There are a huge number of users on Facebpook, and many of them spend enough time on Facebook that promoting your interests on Facebook is of critical importance to your blog promotion
3. You can actually use other Facebook Groups to get a lot more information on your chosen subject, as well as find out how successful groups get more users. Find other groups on the same subject, join them, and learn about the discussions and promotion tactics that happen on these groups; and learn from them.
4. A Facebook Group slightly reduces the concept of this being a marketing strategy, since it seems to make this a discussion forum. As a result, members are more likely to get interested in topics of discussion, and even though a large number of the posts will not have much interest in visiting your site, you will still get more visitors, and more people who are your readers in some way.
5. Updates are automatically sent to the Group members, ensuring a wide degree of proliferation of the content, and ensuring that new content added to the Group gets a wide dispersal as more members get added
6. There are some very successful Facebook Groups that have a large number of users and which have done incredibly well to promote their interests, with some incremental benefits to the image of the creator (and the associated site)
7. You can have a lot of analytics to measure the performance of your Group, what makes it successful, what makes it a failure, and so on. This analysis helps you make the required decisions and further steps needed.
8. Facebook Groups get added to the Search from within Facebook, and a larger number of people can find your group as the group becomes more active, this enabling even more users to find the Group and so on.
9. You can search for people on Facebook who have similar interests, and invite them to your Group. A large number of them will refuse, but there will be many who are interested, and will view your site, and if interested, will join.
10. If you get an active set of people in your Group, and they are able to associate with your site / blog, then that is a level of viral marketing that people pay huge amounts of money to get, and the benefits you get through this are incredible.

Find out some details of creating / maintenance in the Facebook Group Help at this page (link).

Why set up a Facebook Fan page for promoting your blog ?

ashish — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 13:31:04 +0000

When I first heard of using Facebook as a marketing tool to promote a blog, it seemed so simple. I went ahead and created a profile for the relevant subject, and then used Twitterfeed to send automatic updates from my blogs to the relevant walls of the Facebook profiles. However, one issue kept on troubling me – since my profile is only available to my friends, how will it help in the promotion of my blog ? I started doing some more research on this, and found that it makes a lot more sense instead to setup a Fan Page for doing this promotion. So what are some of the benefits of using Fan Pages ?
1. As stated above, a profile is private information and is not indexed by search engines. Fan Pages are not behind a login, and are available through searches; so over a period of time, you will be able to get more users through search engine results.
2. The Fan Pages allow you to add some links and other text, and ensures that get some nice incoming links that should help in your search engine rankings. And of course, as your page becomes more popular, you will get more search engine visitors.
3. Building fans take focused strategy, but there are a lot of benefits once you get a number of fans. From a Fan Page, you can send messages to your fans, which is a great messaging vehicle.
4. Metrics. A Fan Page allows you to analyse your data metrics; once you start doing proper metrics analysis, you will realize the benefits you can get.
5. A Facebook profile has a limit on the number of friends you can have, but there are no limits on the Number of Fans you can have.
6. You can share the responsibility of doing the administration of your Fan Page by adding multiple administrators; very useful when you have a popular page
7. You can extend the functionality of these Pages through the use of applications – a number of them are already available, and you can create more for your own need. These include RSS Readers, a Video Player, and so on.
8. You can categorize a number of business / application features by adding them in the Boxes tabs, and make that your entry page.
9. Updates make it to the individual Fan news feed, thus giving you an enhanced reach, and starting to give you that viral approach, especially as you start moving towards point 11 below.
10. You get the same multimedia features as the profile features, and can add graphics and videos as you deem fit
11. Once you get enough fans, you will realize that they make the page self-sustaining, and you don’t have to do much to get the flow of conversation going. This is a great advantage of Fan Pages.

Hopefully this will point you to the advantages of creating a Fan Page. The next post will walk you through the process of creating such a Fan Page.