To Mod_Rewrite or Not to Mod_Rewrite???

[KirstyM]

Hi guys,

I'm looking after the SEO for a dynamic website at the moment. One person has suggested to me that applying a mod_rewrite to the site will make it more search engine friendly.

i.e it will make dynamic url's appear to be static and therefore improve spidering and so on.

Someone else has said, "Ah, but no. That's cloaking, and if you get caught Google will have you out on your backside!

I've no experience with these, but thought it wouldn't do any harm from a Yahoo POV to try it out (until person B spoke to me!!).

Anyone got any thoughts??

[dmorison]

"Ah, but no. That's cloaking, and if you get caught Google will have you out on your backside!

Not true at all. It doesn't even fit the description of cloaking; which is serving one thing to humans and another to search engines.

Millions of dynamic sites use mod_rewrite to create clean URLs, and if anything the search engines encourage the use of it because it implies that the content will not change in the future.

Go for it! Everybody else does...

[KirstyM]

Thank goodness.

I've already commissioned someone to do the work and some other SE friendly bits and bobs. I was starting to panic.

It's never good for one's professional reputation when you apply "Search Engine Death" to someone's web site!

I must admit I was a little confused as I've heard a fair bit of good stuff about their usage and nothing negative.
Changing your URL isn't really cloaking is it? I just get the shivers when someone mentions the dreaded word!

Cheers,

Kirsty

[smn2]

That's my understanding too re. Mod Rewrite - go for it!

The search engines prefer it, and it makes more sense
to visitors too.

[Brendon]

Cloaking - also known as "user agent delivery", is serving different information to a GET request, depending on the content of the incoming HTTP_USER_AGENT field. Usually, this is actually used to send different CSS files, or slightly different, browser specific code (<blink> / <marquee> for instance), BUT it can also be used by some naughty SEO's to send different text.

Send a keyword stuffed link-fest to Googlebot, and a vanilla sales page to "normal" users, and see what happens to YOU sunshine...

URL rewriting - typically used to removed complex, unfriendly variables from a URL, without varying the content displayed, its the kind of thing Google actively encourage, as it makes more of the web available to their endless quest for <jonny-5>INPUT!</jonny-5>. It is in no way cloaking

[pricethat]

Use it, works wonders on sites

[Frostie]

I had burst many a brain cell and vein in trying to understand how this worked or how I woulc/could implement it on my sites. Anyway, months ago I found this utility which helped me 100%

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/mod...enerator.shtml

1 question I do have, is it better to have a page or directory rewrite? ie.
Directory: domain.com/this/is/rewrite/
Page: domain.com/this/is/rewrite.html

Always wondered what others had found, as of yet its too early for me to say which is working best for me.