I think it helps with msn, otherwise it's overrated. But some people like to have their url look better with keywords in them. I just wouldn't expect major ranking changes because of it.
I think is another piece, which does adds to a better SERP, is not the most important piece, but adds. My opinion though, I use it.
Using mod_rewrite doesn't hurt your site so why don't use it? Also I think in general you can also use mod_rewrite to make your url's look a lot cleaner. It's not only good for search engines, but people as well!
static url's will get your pages indexed quickly and more pages will get indexed and they look neat aswell
I agree with smfseo... It gets pages indexed quickly. Also when the URL shows in Google it doesnt look messy and people want to be able to read clean on their seraches and not have a bunch of ?id=blabla what they dont understand.
Guys, do you have evidence that shows a static URL gets indexed faster than one with GET params? I'm not so sure about that, so I'd like to have some hard evidence to confirm. Ofcourse removing session id params (in my case that use phpbb) is very important, but I have nothing to compare with to check if the pages without GET params do get indexed faster. Thanks
Generally friendlier URLs are more appealing to visitors and easier to remember. It's easy to use (article here) and makes a big difference in the overall appearence of your site, every little bit helps.
IME it helps with better indexing. but keep in mind for Google most important thing is confidence on website.
I think it helps the Visitor and makes it easier if they want to link someone to a page and also makes a URL easier to remember if they want to go directly to a subpage.
clyde, mod_rewrite is a module for the apache webserver. You'll need your own webserver or access to the <VirtualHost> configurations of one. Then you simply find one of the many rewrite articles that applies to the CMS you're using and follow it.
Not many people know this but you can also rewrite your urls using ForceType if mod_rewrite is unavailable on your server. Here is how: put this <Files index> ForceType application/x-httpd-php </Files> Code (markup): into .htaccess file and rename index.php to index (no extension) and there you have it. Ofcourse there are many disadvantages of such url rewriting but it's a diffrent story. One more thing i wan't to add, you all guys mentioned that mod_rewrite is good for spiders, but i think it is also great for users who visit your site, rewriting urls makes your site look more professional.
Matt Cutts had talked about this in one of his video posts and "hinted" that Google indexes ok and doesn't penalize pages with GET parameters in URL but it does tend to crawl at a slower pace pages with more than 3-4 parameters. He made it pretty much clear that sites with lots of parameters in url would benefit from a URL rewrite. In any way, using mod_rewrite doesn't hurt. And URL's are friendlier, people start sharing them with friends more.
What does static links have more then dynamic ones? Can anyone explain me clearly Only that Google will crwal first the static ones? is that it? Best regards
No disadvantages to using it really. Lots of advantages: + Search engines prefer keywords in the url + Easier for users to remember the url + When a user see /news.php?id=127509 it means nothing. /news/news-story-title/ means something to them + user is more likely to click on a url they know what it is about.
it is good , but not must.It helps for quick index of pages that increase your site index pages anf keyword density, but server load also increase huge, for big sites it is little diff to manage.