Does my overly dynamic website hurt my SEO?

[sviohl]

I have heard from a couple of people that my overly dynamic URL's hurt my SEO tremendously.  Can anyone verify that?  Of course my provider says it doesn't matter but I take what they say with a grain of salt.

Another thing, my web crawls show a TON of errors for duplicate page title and overly dynamic url and duplicate page content.  How big of a deal is this?

http://www.nvclothing.com

[WilliamBay]

The difference between something like:

http://www.nvclothing.com/product.asp?lt=c&catid=17763&sec=women&pfid=NVC02304

And what you could do with something like:

http://www.nvclothing.com/wildfox-couture-red-sparkle-heart-long-sleeve-tee

Is pretty significant. Keywords in the url are tremendously valuable and it's worth it to get a developer that is familiar with url rewrite for ecommerce sites like yours.

As far as the duplicate titles and content, big deal. Bear in mind, that you are not going to face any penalties, but you're missing out on performing as best you can and ranking for searches you should be, because the website is not following best practices by having unique content and titles for each and every page.

It's a bit of work, but totally worth the effort.  

[CodyWheeler]

Depends on how the URL is being written. URL names can get ugly with dynamic writing if they're not cleaned up with URL rewriting methods.

This is something that can have a fairly significant effect on your SEO. You may want to look into configuring a URL rewriting method to write pretty URLs.

Here are a couple of articles to get you started.

http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/using-mod-rewrite-to-convert-dynamic-urls-to-seo-friendly-urls

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/dynamic-urls-vs-static-urls-the-best-practice-for-seo-is-still-clear

[RyanKent]

I will agree with Cody and William but offer a bit more detail.

I took a look at your site and yes, your dynamic URLs are pretty ugly.

http://www.nvclothing.com/product.asp?lt=c&catid=13039&sec=women&pfid=NVC02369

There is nothing wrong with having a dynamic URL at all. It would perform a lot better from a SEO perspective if it was displayed in a readable format.

Do my overly dynamic URL's hurt my SEO?

No. Overly dynamic URLs do not hurt SEO. But, your dynamic URLs are missing a significant opportunity to help SEO. By using readable URLs search engines can factor in the key words from your URL as a factor in determining your rank. Also, people feel more comfortable clicking on a URL that clearly indicates what the page will show.

How big of a deal is duplicate page titles and duplicate page content?

It's something you want to fix. The duplicate page issue can be addressed with adding the canonical tag to your pages. There is a strong chance that will fix your duplicate page title issue as well.

If you do not fix this issue, you may have the wrong pages indexed, and your link value may not flow to the correct page. Basically, you wont rank as well in search results.

Something else I noticed while on your site. You use the meta description tag twice. You should eliminate one of them.

[sviohl]

Thank you for the feedback.  I will look into the meta description issue.  can you tell me what page you see that on?

I'll also look into the canonical tag.

I've been told I'll never experience any real growth with my current platform/provider.  Is this true?

[RyanKent]

The meta description issue was on your home page.

With respect to the comment "you will never experience any real growth", can you share the reasoning offered? What exactly is wrong with your current software?

That broad statement seems like something a person who is selling software would say to encourage you to buy their product.

I do see SEO opportunities on your site which you are working on correcting. I am also confident if you put time, money and effort into your site you could improve it.

[sviohl]

Thanks for your feedback.  I found the meta tag problem and am fixing it now.  I have just recently begun to actively work on my website.  If you don't mind, would you please point out areas in which you believe need the most improvement on my site?

I know I don't rank very well on many keywords that I care about but don't really know what to do about it.

thanks in advance.

[RyanKent]

I will gladly offer a few tips on your site, but first I will make a couple observations. It sounds like you are just getting started with SEO so I would strongly suggest reading the beginner's guide to SEO from start to finish. Even if you are experienced with SEO it can be a great refresher.

For your site and business, determine your niche. What makes your site different from the thousands of other sites which sell clothing? Use your niche to determine your keywords. Unless you have a massive budget, you will not be able to compete nationally with other websites, but you can do well with longtail keywords.

The below is a list of a few items I would change with your site. Others may feel differently so please be clear these are my opinions:

• The meta description for your product pages should be unique. The page I examined had the same description as your home page.

• If you have more information about your company, expand your About Us page. Information such as an address, pictures and profiles of key employees, etc. give consumers confidence in your site.

• Consider adding badges from companies like TRUSTe, Verisign, McAfee and the BBB. These badges offer shoppers a measure of comfort and confidence in your site.

• I didn't go through your checkout but if you do not offer Google Checkout, then add it. It's Google's search engine you wish to rank in, and adding their checkout makes your results stand out.

• remove your meta keywords tag. It offers no benefit.

• I looked at a blog page: http://www.nvclothing.com/blog. The images at the top are not linked. What if I like what I see and wish to buy it? By linking the image you allow your viewers to be impulsive. Otherwise your visitor needs to want the product enough to search your site.

• I couldn't find a Home button. Once I leave the home page, how do I get back? Sure I can type in the URL or use the Back button, but I would recommend adding a Home link somewhere.

There were numerous good things I noticed. Your pages have unique Title tags, you offer social sharing buttons right next to your products, and have alt tags on your images.

Good luck.