subject: The Battle Of Urls - Dynamic Vs Static [print this page] If you wish to have a higher search engine ranking for your web site, it's very important for you to know the difference between a dynamic and static URL.
Dynamic URL:
The use of java or PHP script is becoming very popular, as majority of the web sites have started using databases, which can insert the desired content in the web page using a dynamic script. These web sites are referred as dynamic web sites.
A dynamic URL contains user-defined variables in the URL and it's the web page that implements certain specific functions and exhibits the information to the user. This information can consist of content, images or any other information of the web page. The most notable feature of such URLs is they allow you to create multiple web pages easily and consistently, without requiring a large amount of any additional coding.
These URLs are mainly used when all the content of a web site is stored in a particular database and displayed as per viewers' demand.
Besides, web sites with dynamic URLs have the ability to exhibit dissimilar content with the similar layout. This in turn helps to save a large amount of web masters' time and effort otherwise required to manually edit, code or recreate the pages.
Dynamic URLs are built by using server side technologies such as PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) or ASP (Active Server Pages) and a database MySQL acting in the form of backend storage.
Many a time Dynamic URLs contain the following characters: &, %, cgi-bin,.cgi, =, $,?, and +.
Static URL:
These URLs don't possess variable settings and aren't dynamically generated. In comparison to dynamic URLs, static URLs tend to have a better ranking in different search engine result pages. No wonder then, all 4 major search engines tend to handle static URLs in a more convenient way than the dynamic URLs.
Static URLs can also be beneficial in terms of click through rates. Besides, static URLs are relatively easier to remember and so, very useful in branding an offline media.
Static URLs are easier to copy-paste and share both online and offline.
These URLs are also more convenient for the end-user to see and understand what the web page is all about. For instance, if a user views a particular URL in a search engine result that corresponds to the description and title, he/she will obviously click on that URL instead of clicking on the one that
doesn't make any sense to him.
Dynamic URLs, therefore, can't afford you the similar opportunity, in terms of search engine rankings, portability or usability that keyword-optimized URLs do.
