You should have asked what's the disadvantages: 1. Search engines can now handle dynamic urls. 2. Many mod_rewrite hacks do not utilize proper 301 redirects, which is VERY bad. 3. According to Google, 301 redirects do not transfer the benefits of pre-existing inbound links. 4. Rewriting your url destroys any age benefit it once had. 5. Any query you run will return plenty of high ranking pages that do not utilize keywords in the url. 6. Mod_rewrite takes up valuable system resources. Taken from Dchapman's article referred by minstrel's article at TAZ. Look at your address bar, see those pretty dynamic urls? Use em' and focus on content.
It has a few advantages for SEO and also when the person actually looks at the link, but the overall advantages are not a determining factor and I don't even worry about them myself and I do great!!!
For the sake of arguing and getting a proper debate: 1. Sure, search engines can. But can your visitors remember URL.com/product?id=90348u09 ? 2. I've never in my life had to make use of a 301 redirect for the sole benefit of transferring links. Shouldn't I take your advice and "focus on content"? If you have a business website, and you're serious about it, I don't suspect you would be moving domains or content around so this wouldn't be much of an issue. 3. I suppose same argument for #2. 4. Not a problem. Google likes content that is frequently updated don't they? When's the last time you saw an old 1990's content page in search results? I haven't in a long time, and I have a technology website that beat competitors with age benefit in as little as a month with minimal work. 5. Obscure argument; query what exactly? 6. This is negligible. I've been with LunarPages for several years now. When I was on the shared server, surprisingly there were no system crashes or stalls. Now that I have my own server with them it's just as peppy. No slowdown, even despite hitting the front page of Digg several times. Realistically I would say it's worth it if your community is based around users, if you run an e-commerce store, or if you want to start ranking better for certain keywords. If you had any real need of an un-sanitized URL, you can easily add exceptions to your rules.
Since you have NO clue what you're talking about, I'd rather not argue and waste my time. I'm sure anybody with half a brain understands why using mod rewrite is pointless and outdated Come back when you actually know what you're talking about.
MelfromBoD - The purpose of my reply was not to attack, but to provide debate. Your verbal attacks are out of line. If you would like to continue the debate, then by all means, tell me why I don't know what I'm talking about. Seems odd that I'm not the only one that makes use of mod rewrite. http://www.vbseo.com/ http://www.experts-exchange.com/Web_Development/Internet_Marketing/Q_22073009.html http://www.seoconsultants.com/articles/1000/urls.asp Secondly, why do the majority of all websites use mod rewrite? http://facebook.com http://myspace.com (Anything created by RoR) http://twitter.com http://digg.com Try not to take offense in a debate, just some words of advice.
I've already posted my resources in my first post but here ya go again : Source: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/3750106.htm The forum you're posting on and many other top forums DO NOT use mod rewrite and rank VERY high SERPs, why is that? Your argument has NO merit and cannot be supported this day and age. Sucks for you if you spent $100+ on vbSEO. Ouch and why do you think vBulletin is JUST now going to release "seo friendly urls" with 4.0? Get a clue dude.
@MelfromBoD - The resource you listed mentions changing the extension of the file- that is obviously a bad tactic and considered black hat. But using mod rewrite otherwise is completely legitimate. Since you neglected to mention what "other forums" were, I'll go with your example with DigitalPoint. http://www.google.com/search?q=webmaster+forum shows v7n.net to outrank DP, and guess who has mod rewrite enabled and who doesn't? In fact, two of the nine results that were actual forums use mod rewrite. That's about 80% of the search results being dominated. vbSEO has a valid business because what they sell works. Yes, I did buy it. And yes, I did see a large traffic spike from using it. Whereas I was previously getting no traffic for a networking forum, I was starting to get hits for keywords related to the posts within a month. Did I renew? No I didn't, because a computer networking forum doesn't have much appeal, and I don't have time to moderate it. So this much is true: mod rewrite helps in SEO. That you can't argue because it is fact with the given examples. "Your argument has NO merit and cannot be supported this day and age." - Saying my argument doesn't have merit doesn't make it true. In fact using fallacies such as this ruins your own credibility. May I ask how your personal experiences have shown you your beliefs? Because I have shared mine and they only support my side of the debate.
are you seriously counting an Alexa Ranked # 6,933 v7n vs #373 Ranked Digital Point? Wow, you can't be serious? You're still not making a valid argument. Go on, keep trying.
The fact that you mentioned a younger website that has fewer backlinks is beating DigitalPoint, which is something of a name brand among webmasters, just proved my point. You just shot yourself in the foot.
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/v7n.com+digitalpoint.com/ v7n.com has a greater increase in visitors in the past year, which can only mean they are growing faster than DigitalPoint. They also do not have a negative change in visitors for the past month, unlike DigitalPoint. Also look at the referrals; DP has almost 20 times the amount of referrals that v7n.com has. In addition, DP is older and has rooted itself in an entire generation of webmasters, while v7n.com was late to the game. But don't lose focus of the debate, this shouldn't be about traffic and which forum is better. Oh, and you might know something a few webmasters use here and there.
url rewrite contains keywords in links. as http://www. example. com/productid.php?pid=xyz is for product display with rewrite we can make this url googel friendly as http://www. example . com/sony-vaio-p-Series.