jaymc Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 What will google like better, if any, for a URL www.website.com/pages/members or www.website.com/pages/members.htm Does it matter? I can do either with modRewrite Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFilmGod Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 Better choice => www.website.com/pages/members.htm www.website.com/pages/members is a bad choose because it may be referring to the directory "members" and not a file. Furthermore, as I understand it, mod rewrite was created to ease the users with better urls. The server still handles complicated $_GET[''] in the url, BUT THEN mod rewrite comes in and cleans it up. Lastly, google doesn't grade pages on navigational schemes. This would be unfair as websites have different scenarios and environments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToonMariner Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 doesn't matter which of those you use - this is down to the default within a dir being index (normally) What google doesn't like (or at least didn't like that much) are urls with query strings in - especially long query strings like ?foo=bar&fo=ba&x=y&etc=ect Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaymc Posted June 29, 2008 Author Share Posted June 29, 2008 Better choice => www.website.com/pages/members.htm www.website.com/pages/members is a bad choose because it may be referring to the directory "members" and not a file. Furthermore, as I understand it, mod rewrite was created to ease the users with better urls. The server still handles complicated $_GET[''] in the url, BUT THEN mod rewrite comes in and cleans it up. Lastly, google doesn't grade pages on navigational schemes. This would be unfair as websites have different scenarios and environments. doesn't matter which of those you use - this is down to the default within a dir being index (normally) What google doesn't like (or at least didn't like that much) are urls with query strings in - especially long query strings like ?foo=bar&fo=ba&x=y&etc=ect One of you is saying it doesnt matter the other is saying go with the .html? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToonMariner Posted June 29, 2008 Share Posted June 29, 2008 trust me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFilmGod Posted June 30, 2008 Share Posted June 30, 2008 Google will still open the file regardless of the link scheme. It will not downgrade your page rank because of an unconventional link scheme - that would be unfair. But as I stated before it does matter to an extent. www.website.com/pages/members is an ambiguous case and can refer to a directory or a file with any extension of .php or .html (of course the actual thing that comes up is the result of apache's configuration). Nonetheless, this creates confusion with users and thus will ultimately hurt your page rank since google tracks your traffic through the use of inbound links -and you will receive less of those if it's confusing in any way. You don't need to trust me, - I KNOW . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToonMariner Posted July 2, 2008 Share Posted July 2, 2008 well - I'm not one for arguing but... the main portion of googles page ranking algorithm is how the page title relates to the page content, headers and (apparently less important these days) the meta keywords and description. Headers in the mark up are used to break down your document and I am lead to believe that google rewards well structured markup. The ACTUAL url of your page is not THAT significant (providing you don't use the massive query strings as I mentioned before). As for whether you should have the extension on or not... well NO you shouldn't and why you will ask... well have a read of this cool uris don't change. Google doesn't care if your url is to a directory or a file - all it cares about is what your server returns for it to parse and index. As for users - well.. give them a url to rememeber. www.asite.com/latestnews is FAR better than www.asite.com/latestnews.php or .html why? because they have to remember the .php and .html - despite the fact many moer people use the internet don't ever mistake that for people understand too much. by all means set apache up to serve what you want it to if they put an extension but people deal in their own language really well so giving a url that is pretty much just english words (ok words of the site language - that son't need encoding!!!) and nothing else will ALWAYS benefit your site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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