URL Question

[jim.thornton]

If using a system like Joomla, is it better to use the dynamic URL generated by the system or use an extension like sh404sef where it will rewrite the URL.

Example:

(domain)/index.php?com_content=23&id=24&view=article

or

(domain)/pickup-trucks/dodge/article-title-including-keywords

[dzine]

I think you already know the answer

[jim.thornton]

I thought I knew the answer (keywords) but just read something that indicated it didn't matter. I then went to Google's Webmaster blog which also said that it is better to let them handle the dynamic url's on their own. I just don't see how that is possible but it has been so long since I have done anything with SEO that I wanted to make sure.

Am I right in thinking that the clean URL's are better?

[dzine]

Google can handle dynamic URLs just fine.

However, if you leave the URLs like that with numbers only, you get none of the (slight) benefit of having your keywords in the URL.

And even if you have duplicate pages, some with the old URL and some with the new, fancy URL, then Google can handle it just fine

Still, why depend on them?

The only thing is: if you drastically change the URL structure/shape on an established website, rankings will surely drop at first.

And you'd have to make sure that the old URLs point to the new URLs (or vice versa) using 301-style redirects. It's a bit of a hassle

[dzine]

On a brand new site, I would ALWAYS aim for the keyword-rich (but not too spammy-looking) URLs.

[jim.thornton]

Okay, thank you.

It is an established site. Do you think there will be a negative impact on ranking if I setup 301 redirects for all the old pages?

I was going to go to google and type: sitename.com site:sitename.com

This way I think I will get all the indexed pages and will be able to do all the redirects.

[dzine]

Why don't you try a couple first?

Quick question:
Do your inner pages (the ones that say 'content=23&id=24&view=article' etc.) get lots of direct inbound links?

[jim.thornton]

Sorry, let me clarify the situation... My site has been running for years. It is currently NOT dynamic. I have let it go as far as SEO goes and am in the process of re-designing everything. I'm giving it a face lift and at the same time re-starting my SEO efforts. I've let it go so much that it really isn't effective anymore anyway, so if I do lose ranking it probably won't matter much.

That said, I do have a couple of pages that rank really really well, but they are really not the pages that I want ranked anyway (they don't ring the register if you know what I mean).

I was going to keep everything with the non-dynamic URL's but then I read that article and things have changed a fair bit since my last efforts at SEO I thought I would check to see.

So, I currently have keyword rich URL's. When I launch the website I was going to change them slightly because there are sections of the URL that are meaningless so I was going to change those sections of the URL and then do a 301 redirect.

Do you think that could have a negative impact. I *think* I'll be improving them both from a standpoint of SEO and from the standpoint of them being meaningful to a user.

[joshz]

Sorry, let me clarify the situation... My site has been running for years. It is currently NOT dynamic. I have let it go as far as SEO goes and am in the process of re-designing everything. I'm giving it a face lift and at the same time re-starting my SEO efforts. I've let it go so much that it really isn't effective anymore anyway, so if I do lose ranking it probably won't matter much.

That said, I do have a couple of pages that rank really really well, but they are really not the pages that I want ranked anyway (they don't ring the register if you know what I mean).

I was going to keep everything with the non-dynamic URL's but then I read that article and things have changed a fair bit since my last efforts at SEO I thought I would check to see.

So, I currently have keyword rich URL's. When I launch the website I was going to change them slightly because there are sections of the URL that are meaningless so I was going to change those sections of the URL and then do a 301 redirect.

Do you think that could have a negative impact. I *think* I'll be improving them both from a standpoint of SEO and from the standpoint of them being meaningful to a user.

Joomla treats the SEF version as the redirect for your dynamic URL.

SEF plugins are horrible, they will cause problems.

Your pages will still be findable with SEOF (friendly) URL's or the default URLs.

Long story short. Don't use plugins. Rename your htaccess file .htaccess and change the SEF settings the Joomla handles by default. 3rd party plugins for SEF URL's will cause more problems in the long run and are KNOWN to cause some popular components to fail or crash.

[jim.thornton]

I have been running sh404sef for years on my older site and the component redirects all of the old dynamic urls into the SEF urls. The only issues I ever ran into is that sometimes with another component, sh404sef didn't know how to deal with the url. In that case I made my own plugin for sh404sef and it worked perfectly.

Do you have experience with this particular SEF plugin?

[joshz]

I have been running sh404sef for years on my older site and the component redirects all of the old dynamic urls into the SEF urls. The only issues I ever ran into is that sometimes with another component, sh404sef didn't know how to deal with the url. In that case I made my own plugin for sh404sef and it worked perfectly.

Do you have experience with this particular SEF plugin?

More or less.

A lot of components for Joomla will function poorly because of the plugin. I know a few contact forms act crazy and Jomsocial just runs like crap.

It's more of a resource hog than the default Joomla SEF settings and it simply over complicates things for me. My best advice is to change the htaccess file to allow the mod_rewrite and change the Joomla core settings to allow for SEF's:

http://docs.joomla.org/Enabling_Search_Engine_Friendly_%28SEF%29_URLs_on_ Apache

Granted, some articles will have the old URL until you can assign them a menu item, but if you just make a 'fake' menu that's never visible, you can still use the SEF URL's.

[AlexTampa]

Okay, thank you.

It is an established site. Do you think there will be a negative impact on ranking if I setup 301 redirects for all the old pages?

I was going to go to google and type: sitename.com site:sitename.com

This way I think I will get all the indexed pages and will be able to do all the redirects.

they will go back YEARS , and not just what you see in the index.

There is no reason to go from sef to non-sef
Sef links also have some security added to them, you do not want the hack bots hammering away at every parameter.

Joomla has "consistancy" problems with non-sef links, just like with most cms "dynamic" urls.

[jim.thornton]

Pefect, thank you for the help!

[Isaac Wendt]

It's all about user experience in the end. If i want to try and remember the url and retrun what is easier? oijer=38%-49 of your-targeted-keywords.

It's normally keywords.