Right off the bat I want to make it clear that search engines never see raw PHP. This is because PHP is a server side language which outputs to the HTML flow. Let me explain, when you request a web page through your browser the server that hosts the page takes care of all the PHP calls behind the scenes, constructs an HTML document and sends it to your browser. So, a web page can contain html that is the output a PHP script parsed on the host's server.

From an SEO point of view there is no difference between a page that utilizes PHP technology and one that doesn't, the problem lies in poor implementation of the technology. URLs that contain session IDs can create indexing problems and badly written PHP can extend download time or crash your browser causing pages to be labelled unresponsive by search engines. These problems, and others, can negatively impact your search engine ranking and are probably the reason why some people view PHP and SEO like oil and water.

Some of the most popular (and most search engine friendly) web sites, including this one, depend on dynamic content. PHP, ASP, JavaBeans, and Pearl add functionality and database connectivity that allows you tailor each visitors experience according to their unique preferences, create login screens, build blogs and populate shopping carts. Without this functionality we would be stuck with brochure sites.

Content Managed Systems

There are many content managed systems on the market, both free and commercial, designed to make the creation of WebPages accessible to those without programming knowledge. Most do what they say on the box and the creators are undoubtedly talented programmers. However if you run the resulting pages from many of these Content Managed Systems through the WC3 HTML Validator you could be shocked to find find that each page is littered with hundreds of coding errors.

There are a few reasons this could happen. If the CMS system you are using is more than a few years old it may be using depreciated tags that no longer form part of HTML language. Some of the errors may be stemming from page templates you have created or purchased. Problems could also occur if you have used depreciated tags or entered coding errors into the system when adding or editing page content. Of course the CMS could just be badly written and produced tag soup rather than clean code is simply a built in feature! Note, the programming language is not responsible for any of these are problems; it comes down to poor implementation and pilot error.

Use POSH to build Search engine friendly documents

Regardless of what technology you chose to create your pages you should strive to ensure that the underling code is semantic, error free and standards compliant. POSH is the acronym for Plain Old Semantic HTML. The goal of Semantic HTML is to create (X)HTML documents using semantic elements and attributes rather than presentational HTML. The benefits of using semantic HTML cannot be ignored; pages are more accessible to both to people with disabilities, as well as to search engines. Good semantic markup makes it easier for engines to determine the topic of a page, and when used together with a good site structure, helps achieve those much sought after search engine rankings!

SEO Scotland: Promoting business online with professionalism and integrity.