Review by Patrick Quicci!
Today I had the privilege to attend the Fun With Dynamic Web Sites session conducted by Mikkel deMib Svendsen from deMib.com, Laura Thieme from Bizresearch.com and Jake Ballie from STNlabs.com. They did a good job of accomplishing their goal; a basic overview of common issues with dynamic web content, and a few do’s and dont’s.
Mikkel kicked off the session with a very educating, but basic review of some common misconceptions. Some of those include storing content in a database; ” “-marks in query strings and server side includes which are actually NOT problems. He also dove into problems that do directly influence the search engines, for example long urls, duplicate content and certain technologies such as AJAX when they aren’t implemented properly. Some of the indirect issues he covered were; requiring cookies for navigatoin, Java script and Flash along with Geo targeting and personalization. These are all items that can cause havoc with regard to getting dynamic content properly indexed.
Next up was Laura Thieme from Biz Research. Laura also discussed issues that your typical client may run into in the eyes of the search engines. If you were lucky enough to see Laura at SES New York in April don’t fret, she uses the same exact presentation. She went so far as to apologize for this, which wasn’t necessary because most presenters do th is, but it was a nice touch. She touched on basic areas that need attention when optimizing a site such as page titles, headers and text based navigation. She also touched on other factors which can result in the engines from shying away from your site. Make sure your E-commerce solution and Content Management System aren’t blocking the engines!
Finally everyone’s favorite SES speaker Jake Ballie stepped up to the podium. As usual Jake was in prime form interacting with the attendees and keeping everyone on their toes. Jake’s presentation started off by touching on dynamic telephone numbers, price elasticity and mining failed internal search terms. All areas that a dynamic web owner should integrate to squeeze the most out of their site. The highlight of this presentation was when Jake started talking about competitors and what to do if you find out they are stealing content (scraping) from your site. By stealing I mean image hotlinking, price monitoring and content lifting. To ensure this doesn’t become an epidemic all you need to know is the I.P. addresses of your competitors and how to work with Mod Rewrites. For example, if you find a competitor using images from your site you can use a Mod Rewrite to show them a different picture. “What you choose to show is your own personal preference, but I would recommend showing something they will regret”, wink wink. Some great ideas for ways to deal with lazy competition.
All in this was a very good session which I would recommend to anyone that’s just getting started working with Dynamic Websites.
Stay tuned for more updates from SES San Jose 2007……