ASP and SEO - Don't Believe the Myths

Before writing this Hub I went over to old faithful, Google's Keyword Tool, and started to look for keywords related to ASP and SEO. Surprisingly, I found practically nothing, which furthers the purpose of this publication even more... don't believe the myths out there, ASP.NET will not adversely affect your page rankings anymore than any other Internet programming language.

If you wish to skip the following narrative and get to the info, please scroll down to "Disproving the ASP and SEO Web Crawler Myth."

Let's back up to the kick that eventually got this snowball rolling. My girlfriend, and fellow webdesigner, who codes primarily in ASP, recently found herself in a tight spot. Her client hired a new SEO consultant who began preaching that the client's website needed to be in HTML...

When I heard this, I was immediately thinking... "What!?! A website that needs to be written in HTML? Dude, can you get me a program that doesn't need to be written in binary!?!"

All pages, at their core, are written in HTML or HyperText Markup Language. The other languages out there, javascript, PHP, ASP.NET are merely additional tools to add in special features, databasing, scripting, etc etc etc.

My girlfriend didn't believe the SEO consultant, so she came to me for a second opinion, just incase her knowledge and instincts had failed her. The consultant argued that pages ending in .htm or .html are indexed faster by Google and the other search engine web crawlers. Not only that, he tried to convince me that the rate at which pages become indexed greatly effect page rankings. If convinced the client that if he did not switch at least the major pages on the site to these extensions then it would negatively effect his traffic.

I, of course, had never heard of such a thing and immediately tested out the client's keywords... he was ranked on the first page of Google for every major keyword phrase his site had been optimized for. He also had almost all his pages indexed in the engine. Over the past three months his site's relative ranking increased 70%, a result of work done way before the new SEO consultant came on board.

But, did I really need to bother checking? I knew the site was already written in HTML. Doh! The client did not require any databasing, so the possible server-side lagging did not come into play. And I know how anal of a coder my girlfriend is, so I did not doubt her workmanship. Her file extensions were all clean and optimized for page ranks as well. On top of that, I spoke with the SEO consultant and he could not give me any tangible evidence to back his claim.

And who could? Unless you work on Google's algorithims, how can you be 100% sure? SEO is a trial and error game at times, an adventure of discover, usually ending up as more of an art than a science.

Well, using what I do know about search engines and the Internet, here's my strong case against his statement.

Disproving the ASP and SEO Web Crawler Myth

1. ASP.NET, just like PHP, and just like javascript, is a widely used Internet programming language.

By now Google, Yahoo!, and of course MSN would know how to properly handle.

2. Web crawlers primarily look at content, not coding.

Crawlers scan for what's useful for users typing queries into search engines, and that means information, not stylization. That's why the <title> and the <h1> tags are important to optimize for keywords... they emphasize the purpose of the page. That's why content is important because it's what's actually useful for the reader. And that's why the <font> tag is not because who cares if a word is blue, or red, or purple - at least when content is the main concern.

3. Writing a website purely in HTML would throw the Internet back into the early 90's.

Imagine not being able to use CSS, SSI, or other methods of implementing standard layout formatting throughout a website from a single or a few source files? Would Google honestly penalize a page because the web designer did not want to edit all 66 pages every time they wished to update a link in the main navigation, or change the header content, or edit anything else that appears the same on each page? Of course not, that would be insane!

4. No one else Online is talking about it.

I searched extensively on the Internet to try and find some other source to back up the myth that ending a page in .asp would effect how quickly Google will spider it. Nothing substantial, nothing from prominent web designers or SEO consultants, nada! I can't even find any keywords related to SEO and ASP.NET, which means no one is looking for information on the topic, which probably means no one has run into any real problems concerning the two.

5. What about database intensive, content exhaustive sites like MSNBC, CNN, Article Publication resources, and Blogs?

Almost all major websites use databases these days - it's become a necessity to do business online. If news sites, article sites, and blogs can pump out pages using languages like PHP, ASP.NET, and javascript and get their content listed on search engines the very same day, what does that say about needing to write a page in pure HTML to do the same? Bogus, that's what.

It's the nature of the website that effects indexing times, not it's language. What, did Google start discriminating all of a sudden? Do people really think the company actively commits Internet programming codism?

But to buy into the fears of the ASP and SEO index time rumor...

Here Are Some Things to Look Out for When Using ASP.NET

• Strange file and directory names resulting from database queries that leave it riddled with symbols like & and ?. Best to create file names and directories that include targeted keywords and phrases.
• Buggy code that slows down how fast the page loads.
• Cumbersome coding that leaves the final loading size above 100KB and greatly increases load time.

By now though, these tips should be no brainers and apply to any programming language.

Follow good coding standards and practices, make sure your code works, and keep your file sizes down. If you can't, find someone who can and your website should be indexed just fine by search engines.

Just let this be a warning to stay away from SEO "specialists" out there that want to scare you into thinking your site is on a ever increasing downward spiral to hell. The same experts that come up with ridiculous claims that lead to recommendations that merely waste your time, money, and might actually hurt your business.

The client mentioned paid to have his whole site converted to pure HTML and with all the complications it will cause him, he'll probably need to pay even more to convert back just so he can keep his business running well.

For all those non techies out there, just know that if your web designer wants to write your website in ASP.NET or PHP, this will not hurt your business, and actually you should be grateful, because you will be allowing for numerous advantages that will save you money and headaches in the long run.

If a SEO consultant ever tells you something that does not make sense, does not feel right, and your webmaster disagrees with it, I highly recommend getting a second opinion or doing some research online.

To receive more SEO, internet marketing, and online business tips, check out www.warrensamu.com.