SEO Freindly URL's

[Stuart]

Tweet

Hi,

I understand the importance of not using session IDs within a URL and making sure they are SEO friendly.

Can anyone explain in simple English what is wrong with the 1st URL below, I have tried explain to a developer but he is not getting it....! Maybe he is correct and the URLs are ok but I thought that google did not like ? = and any ID (maybe I was wrong)

http://www.mysite.com/products/elect...p?categoryid=4

This is what he has said: (but the ids I’m was using was "categoryid" and not "id", so obviously wasn't a session id. Also, even if it thought it was a session id, it wouldn't matter, cos it would just assume the id wasn't there)

Should it be more like

http://www.mysite.com/products/elect...gb_bundle.html

Thanks
Stuart

[globoChris]

I think you're having trouble explaining the problem because the example you are using is not very good.
Usually, parameters are tacked onto the end of a URL to a give a php or asp page details that it can use to display information.

Eg.

mysite.com/index.php?categoryid=1&title=2&product=3

this would display information about 6gb ipods, whereas

mysite.com/index.php?categoryid=1&title=2&product=4

this would display information about 12gb ipods, whereas

mysite.com/index.php?categoryid=2&title=2&product=3

this would display information about children's paddling pools.

The reason those URLs are described as 'not search engine friendly' is because to a search engine theres very little that obviously defines that URL. Each time a single digit changes and the entire content of the page changes - plus, they all point to index.php - quite confusing for our search engine spiders!

PLUS, the more paramters you tack on

mysite.com/index.php?categoryid=2&title=2&product=3&desc=8&pa geno=9&spam=no&bob=true&fail=no

the more a search engine starts to think that the URL is so customised to that specific users unique requirements that it would be pointless showing that URL in its search results as it wouldn't be relevant to the majority of people.

So, its best to have nice, friendly and catchy URLs such as

mysite.com/ipods/6gb-ipod.php

Or

mysite.com/ipods/12gb-ipod.php

Or

mysite.com/pools/paddling-pool.php

as these are obviously unique URLs that a search engine can understand and dispaly.

Hope this helps!

[Stuart]

Hi,

Thanks for the answer. I just noticed that I did not incude the complete URL

http://www.mysite.com/products/electrical/audio/mp3_players/ipod_mini_6gb_bundle.asp?categoryid=4

I guess the answer would be the same. I notice in your example you end the URL with .php would it be better to re-write them and end with .htm or html?

Thanks again

Ta
Stuart

[deadgoodundies]

Just say two words to your developer and then he will get it.

say "apache_mod rewrite" he will understand what you want then.

EDIT: or not as i just noticed in your URL that your pages are .asp - can't remember what the windows version is but its a similair idea (could be mod_rewrite)

[Brendon]

ISAPI filters

Also, bear in mind that categoryid= reads as a id= parameter / value pair to Googlebot. They are wary of ANY string with the entity id= in it, no matter what it is surrounded by.

Having said that, if you've got some decent Google juice it doesn't really matter; if they detect your site is dynamic, they throw it over to a separate crawling set which is more able to handle dynamic sites. The rewrite is still a good idea though