Up until recently, if your dynamic (i.e. database generated) page URLs contained the “&id=” parameter, it was a sure-fire way not to have those pages included in the Google index. Google just refused to spider anything with “&id=”. That’s now changed.
Google formally announced yesterday that they are now indexing URLs that contain “&id=” parameter, but still advises to keep the number of parameters in URL strings down to a bare minimum, 2 at most.
Long URLs with many parameters not only cause problems for some search engine spiders, but they are also a pain in the butt to relay to others. When emailed, the URL will often break through email software text wrapping; making the link useless.
For the sake of search engines, your rankings and humans, the best is to have those URLs rewritten into a static, user friendly format. If your site runs on an Apache server, which the vast majority of web sites do, you can change dynamic urls to static urls utilizing Apache’s mod_rewrite module in conjunction with .htaccess instructions.
Using mod_rewrite, you can turn something like this:
Dynamic:
site.com/page.php?cat=434&sec=bgt&id=7893
to
Static:
site.com/product.htm
Rewriting dynamic URLs to can get a little tricky, so if your site or online store is based on a popular application, run a search on your favorite engine on terms such as:
application seo mod
application search friendly URL
application static URL
application mod_rewrite
.. where “application” is the name of the package you are using.
Quite often you’ll find the vendor or some generous soul has released an easy to implement “mod” (modification) to rewrite URLs to static form.
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If you can’t find a readily available mod or the application your dynamic site is based on was custom made, you may find you’ll need to create your own.
One of the best places to research and ask questions on the subject of mod_rewrite is this forum on WebMasterWorld. If you’re technically minded, start out with this introductory post on rewriting dynamic urls with mod_rewrite.
Related:
Search engine optimization tutorials
Giving search engine spiders direction - 301 redirect
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