Hi, "What is the true wisdom about SEO friendly URL's?" Fact #1: Our favorite forum (DP) has "/showthread.php?t=397621 (with the SEO 'unfriendly ?') Fact#2: Many threads started on DP today are indexed in Google by tomorrow (Note: I'm aware DP's traffic helps, but if the ? is so unfriendly, Goo would not find our DP threads so quickly. Other related facts: Many open source scripts have SEO friendly mods to eliminate the question mark Tons of you will probably say it make a difference, but... ...What is the real truth?? ~~~~~ Quick summary and question: I have a complicated decision to make about an important application... ...the 'SEO friendly URL's' aren't working on the (much) 'better host'. Since Gooooogle can index 'abc.php?' (unfriendly) pages within 24 hours... ...why should I be concerned about using the 'unfriendly' option??? What is the (up-to-date) 'true wisdom' on this topic? Thank you. ~~~~~
If your site is new, you better be using "friendly" links. Established sites with massive internal and incoming linking can get away with it. It is though, best to use "friendly" links.
Keep in mind DP is old established site. I don't think it would make any difference whether "?" or "no ?" URLs are being used here.
The fact a url has a query string in it makes no difference really. Try to get your keywords in the url and avoid session id's and you will be fine. If you can use htaccess to rewrite then you might get slightly better rankings.
According to Google, it can crawl URLs with maximum of two parameters, more than that you can't be sure. Anyways I have tried using four parameters and it still gets indexed and moreover ranks on the first page. But as said earlier, if the site is new, it is better to use seo friendly URLs. I hope this helps. Cheers.