Static or dynamic category pages for seo

[neilhenderson]

Hi, I'm developing an accommodation site with a limited number of properties in 8 categories.  I had been looking at making the properties blog posts and then using category function to show lists but its going to require a lot of customisation and I have seo concerns about the dynamic content as the category page is crucial.

As I don't have a lot to add and listings will remain the same my latest thought was to create all as pages.  However if I create a page with a list of 12 properties on a category page is there anyway of adding some sorting criteria to that page (would be 7 options - swimming pool, near beach, on site creche, budget, mid-range, luxury)

Thanks for any tips

Neil

[neilhenderson]

From an seo perspective the domain is regionfanilyholidays.co.UK so thought category page would be /hotel/ etc

[neilhenderson]

Wow thanks don - I wasn't sure how much content it was appropriate to put on this site so had kept quite generic. But to get stuck in.

It's a family holiday site listing different types (hotels, cottages, campsites, holiday parks, caravan parks) of property - Max 12 in each category and we will be personally reviewing them all. Companies pay to list so seo is key.

I am aiming to finish listings in 12-18 months so have time. The other issue I have with static though is I don't know how I can then add any further filtering /sorting to the 12 listings - though with good bulleted descriptions/icons may not benecessary.

Does that help?-

[donford]

Hi Neil,

Sounds like you have put some thought into this and want to start off in the right place.

Categories: In your line of thinking you seem to landed on wanting category pages either for organization or for keyword opportunities, which is great. However, without knowing exactly what your categories are, or what type of website you're using, it is hard for us to commit further on this line of thinking.

Dynamic vs Static: Depending again on what type of website you're building or working on and the amount of items you'll ultimately end up with its hard for me to give a recommendation. That said, I do have some general rules I like to follow. If we are talking +100's of properties I would absolutely go dynamic.

Dynamic requires more initial coding to get setup, but once done you end up with a very easy way to add properties with minimal effort.

If you're only listing 20-40'ish properties, you may find that putting the personal touch into each page and going static is a better route.

In the end the dynamic vs static debate comes down to time and reward. If I were selling 10, 50 million dollar properties you could bet your left one, that I would absolutely take my time and do them static. But if I had to list 50, 60k properties and 2 150k's I would spend my time on the back end coding something that allows me to plug and play the stats.. so to speak.

To summarize I used property sales as an example here, but it wasn't quite clear if you were talking about selling properties, or possibly hotel rooms. In any case, using categories is usually a good thing.  In the Dynamic vs static debate it all comes down to time vs reward, which is the best way to use your time given the potential return?

Also don't forget about the Schema when you make your decision. https://schema.org/RealEstateAgent

Hope this helps you,

Don