Offline client using ASP pages - How to help SEO?

[MarkR]

I have an offline client that has a 1,400 page site, PageRank 6 site, with 1,300 backlinks that is using an ASP (Active Server Pages) design. I haven't been able to look at their analytics yet, but I can't find that they rank for any keywords, so I don't know where they get their (about 2-5K visitors/month) traffic from.

My question is - since their pages are named like www.clientsite.com/template.asp?pageID=22, how do I help their SEO, (related to page names) since I can't rename the pages www.clientsite.com/dog_collars.html like I'd like to? I understand with backlinks, bookmarking, etc. I can get them ranked for keywords, but is there anything I can do for the page names?

Also, they have relatively few backlinks, and their keyword density and site structure is not conducive to good SEO. Will those ASP page names derail any attempts I make to improve their backlinks/keyword density and help them rank for keywords?

Thanks!

[CaseWhitney]

Originally Posted by MarkR

I have an offline client that has a 1,400 page site, PageRank 6 site, with 1,300 backlinks that is using an ASP (Active Server Pages) design. I haven't been able to look at their analytics yet, but I can't find that they rank for any keywords, so I don't know where they get their (about 2-5K visitors/month) traffic from.

My question is - since their pages are named like www.clientsite.com/template.asp?pageID=22, how do I help their SEO, (related to page names) since I can't rename the pages www.clientsite.com/dog_collars.html like I'd like to? I understand with backlinks, bookmarking, etc. I can get them ranked for keywords, but is there anything I can do for the page names?

Also, they have relatively few backlinks, and their keyword density and site structure is not conducive to good SEO. Will those ASP page names derail any attempts I make to improve their backlinks/keyword density and help them rank for keywords?

Thanks!

If they are using an IIS 7 server you can use Microsoft URL Rewrite Module 1.1 for IIS 7 (x86) : Download : The Official Microsoft IIS Site to do url rewriting to have keywords in urls.
You can still update much of the other on page seo factors like header and title tags without seo'd urls.

Take a look at their traffic stats, optimize what traffic are getting and move onto bigger or more targeted keywords. Once you know what keywords you will be targeting/optimizing, analyze the top ten for seo factors, keyword in url might not be that big a factor for those phrases until you know what you're up against.

[bgmacaw]

There's nothing in ASP that would prevent them from coding it in a SEO friendly way, they just have to do the code correctly. Since they may be set in their ways or using a 3rd party templating system it may be difficult for them to do this.

[MarkR]

CaseWhitney - Thanks. Good plan. Inserting keywords in that rewrite module for 1,400 pages may not be worth the effort.

bgmacaw - I think you hit it. They are likely using some sort of template system that would make this prohibitive.

I'm not sure how much Google cares about the page names anymore. Seems they are no more heavily weighted than keywords in the copy, headings, alt tags, etc. So, probably no big deal.

Mark

[KirkMcD]

Originally Posted by CaseWhitney

If they are using an IIS 7 server

If they are not using IIS7 you can use, isapi rewrite instead.