Search Engine Optimization

As a webmaster I sometimes feel, like Bob Segar, that I am "Running Against the Wind." We started out with our online retail website - OldHonolulu.com - a little over a year ago. When I started I knew nothing at all about optimizing the site for search engines; SEO. There is no shortage of help out there to get you going but the problem is that it is a moving target.
We bought a very cool ASP style package from SmartWin Technology, that had a shopping cart, a fully functioning database and a bunch of tools to upload your inventory, manage affiliates, orders, membership and the list goes on. We have loved it and would recommend it to our clients. Problem is that the .asp code is called by javascript. This means that the data generated by the .asp is never seen by the search engine crawlers. When you check out the source on our shopping pages, you see nothing of our products, descriptions or anything at all. The answer provided by SmartWin is to generate an online catalog with their provided tool. Cool! So I used the tool that generated a very extensive catalog using information from our database and placed those static pages into a separate directory. That actually works well but I don't really want the consumer to be directed to those static catalog pages! I want them directed to our home page and shopping pages. Yes, they can get there from the static pages but most folks searching around expect to see what they are searching for as soon as they click into the site. Lots of shoppers will leave if they don't see the product they are looking for on the first page they encounter. We all know how important first impressions are.
I have been advised by an SEO company to really tune those catalog pages, adding them to my site map and continue to update them often. I feel like I have just created a whole copy of my web site with static pages! What is a girl to do? Isn't there some way to work around this whole dilemma? All I want to do is sell some t-shirts. . .
I will continue to look for ways to drive folks to my web site. I will continue to learn the game designed and re-designed by the search engines. I may end up re-designing my whole site using another dynamic method. Hopefully I will find a miracle cure for the whole thing. In any event, I hope to see you around in the forums!