Can I create a static front page for my dynamic website?

I am somewhat novice on this so help me out. I created 2 DIY websites (from 2 different places), www.sugarplumprincess.com and www.lilfairyprincess.com





I keep beating my head on the wall b/c I can't get super duper placement. Well, I discovered it is b/c my sights are dynamic. Is it kosher (for google and other s.e. monsters) to build a stellar static frontpage that links in to my dynamic site(s)?

Can I create a static front page for my dynamic website?
A static front page is not going to be your magic bullet, any more than a dynamic site is what's killing you.





Search Engine Optimization is much more complex than a single answer will provide, but let me review a couple important points:





- Always remember web sites don't rank at all - web PAGES do. A dynamic output is still a "page" to a search engine.





- Dynamic URLS WILL index fine, but they will index better if you can remove unique session ID's from a URL. That is, if the URL is yoursite.com?products.php%26amp;prodid=123, and ALWAYS stays that URL, it will be fine. It's only when a unique session ID is tacked onto that URL that it really kills the indexing.





- In looking at one of your sites I see you are using some form of URL modification that does not use dynamic query strings like above - this is good. So again, it's not the url.





- in-page keywords: remember, always remember, a search engine is a plain text browser. It reads text. Wherever possible, construct common sense content on your page that works in vital keywords. Don't fluff it, make the content valuable to your visitors - which will naturally lead to keyword-rich content.





- Taking this one step further, you've totally borked it on your alt tags. When a search engine spider encounters an image, it can't "see" what's in the image - but it CAN see the alt tag. Almost all of your ALT TAGS ARE BLANK.





alt=''





You need to work keywords into these alt tags.





alt="crystal petal fairy dress"





This is vital. Don't overdo it and "stuff" them, but get keywords in those alt tags.





- Look at each page of your site and remember point one: PAGES rank well, not websites. Who cares if your main page is on p. 5 in the serps if your fairy dress page, which is what sells the product, comes up #3 on page 1. View your source, work those alt tags, work the text, get as many ocurrences of "fairy dress" in plain text and alt tags as possible on this page. Use variations, like in the alt example above. Then do that for every page of your site.





- Title tag is the most important element of a page. Repeat this to yourself: the title tag is the most important element on a page. Make every one unique, and use keywords here.





- META DESCRIPTION is also an important element, make sure each one describes the page and is unique to the page. If you make the meta description the same on all pages, Google will say hey, this is all the same content - we'll only index it once. YIKES!





- META KEYWORDS - contrary to what you've heard, this element is so widely abused it is really worthless for SEO. Use a minimal keyword list here, but don't put too much time or effort into it - concentrate on title, meta description, and actual page content.





- DO NOT KEYWORD STUFF. Don't try any Stupid Web Tricks like stuffing a thousand instances of a keyword anywhere, or anything that artificially fluffs a keyword. This will get you banned.





Forget about the static html - whoever told you that was clueless. :-) Dynamic pages will index fine. The few points I've mentioned here will be gold. Now get to work! :-)
Reply:"I can't get super duper placement"


I take it you mean you can't get good placement on search engines.





"Well, I discovered it is b/c my sights are dynamic."


The 'SITE', as you wrote elsewhere, is not any more dynamic than most sites on the web. What makes people think you can't get a search engine placement because your site is dynamic?





What do you consider to be a "stellar static frontpage"?





I would simply make sure that you have plenty of text on your site that describes what you do and sell. Make sure your two sites link to each other so you can build some internet reputation. Heck, your site rates 3 on the Google Page Rating and that's one below a site I run which is for a niche market with very little interest (hundreds across the entire US, thousands in the world). Google won't know or care if your domains are hosted by the same person, so you can link to your 'partner sites' to build some rep.





I wouldn't worry about building some fancy splash page unless you really want one. It's all about content.





To see what Google finds on your page, or if it even does, do a search for a word and add the phrase site:mydomain.com where you put your domain in there (no space between site: and the rest of the phrase). So you would do:


site:www.sugarplumprincess.com tiaras


To find all tiaras on that site.





A simple thing to do to help this aspect is to add a short phrase about your site on every single page. Jam this phrase full of useful words. Imagine you are trying to sell the products to a friend, use all the words you want to sell. For example:





"Visit sugarplumprincess.com for all your fairy needs, tiaras, wands, (etc etc). We ship to (blah blah) and can also do custom designs."





Fit EVERYTHING you do on your site or can do into this one paragraph, and place it somewhat prominently but inconspicuously (smaller font) .





Also, make sure your spelling is perfect. Search engines are smart but the better the spelling the better chances you have of search engines finding the words people want. An apostrophe is only used on a plural in certain cases. Not on every word. So it's halos, tiaras and wands, not halo's tiara's and wand's.





Nice design by the way. Definitely suits the product.
Reply:The reason why your not ranking high in search engines is because you don't have the right keywords in your content. You need to figure out what potential visitors will be typing in when they search for a site like yours, keeping in mind that these keywords need to be relevant to what your sites are actually about (i.e. don't put "Britney Spears" throughout your site just to get traffic from her fans). When you come up with a list of those keywords, they need to go into the meta keywords tag which appears in the source code of all your pages. You also need to write a description of your site incorporating your keywords. This is to go in the meta description of your pages too. Since your sites are dynamic, I'm assuming you're using a template system. If so, you may only have to enter the meta data in your templates.





Then you need to incorporate your keywords all within the sites' copy. This takes some skill to not sound redundant. Don't forget to incorporate these words in the header tags (%26lt;h1%26gt;, %26lt;h2%26gt; etc), links, pages titles, etc. when possible.





It will take several weeks before the search engines will revisit your site, pick up your keywords and re-rank you. It should definitely help though. Just do a search for some random, but common subject (e.g. solar panels). If you do a Find command of "solar panels" in the pages of the #1-ranked site, you'll see that they have those keywords in their copy often.





Edit - Take a look at http://www.mistawhitson.com and see how the words "watercolor" "paintings" and "artist" appear throughout the site. I helped my friend with this, and now her search ranking is much better. Sure, we're targeting people in North Carolina so she doesn't show up high when you type in just "watercolor artist," but she comes up on well when people search for artists in NC, Asheville, or Western North Carolina. Let me know if you need any help.