SitePoint.com

winchell · Jul 22, 2003, 12:57

Google, AOLSearch, MSN, HotBot, and AlltheWeb all find GET queried addresses now.

Is there any reason to go through the trouble of making URLs "friendly" ??

Andy Tomaka · Jul 22, 2003, 13:07

It's probably better to be safe than sorry. I would go ahead and use them if you can; it really isn't that much more work. I know that non-friendly URLs can be parsed, but there are so many rumors floating around about what works and what doesn't.

Gybbyl · Jul 22, 2003, 13:15

One benefit to search engine safe url's is human readability -- It's a whole lot easier to tell your friend

Quote:

'yea, eh, just go to yoursite.com/farts/dongle, eh?'

than it is to tell him 'hrm --

Quote:

If i remember correctly... Hmmm... yes... http://www.yoursite.com/index.php?page=farts&subdirectory=dongle&SESS=1002948857771883478&showPage=tru e'

Ramiro S · Jul 22, 2003, 14:55

I think yes... they can index it no but if the url looks non dynamic they will index the pages faster.

Gybbyl · Jul 22, 2003, 15:08

like 2 microseconds faster

Mike · Jul 22, 2003, 15:13

2 reasons:

Humans prefer them
Humans prefer them

See, very good reasons to use them.

Gybbyl · Jul 22, 2003, 15:17

Unless you are just geeky beyond belief -- In that case, memorizing huge, obfuscated urls gives you a woody.

11viking · Jul 23, 2003, 01:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by naramation

2 reasons:

Humans prefer them
Humans prefer them

See, very good reasons to use them.

In my opinion it is about time the search engines start to pick up some dynamic content. What took them so long anyway? I mean, what is the purpose of a search engine? To me it would be to find what I'm looking for as fast and easy as possible. If they don't pick up dynamic content we are missing out on huge amounts of information. Why should every developer have to go through the hassle of having to make those friendly urls every time yuo make a dynamic site? It would save us a LOT of time if the SE's upgraded their spiders/crawlers.

Also I don't really se the huge point of having human friendly urls either. When do you ever spell out a url to anyone? me almost never... Copy, paste then email or IM to whoever needs it.

Cheers,

11Viking

squidgeybidge · Jul 23, 2003, 03:05

Yes, but outside of geek land, people like to be able to see and remember URLs, and it gives them a good clue as to where they are in the site.

Oh yes, you may not have noticed this, but having search terms in the url string helps a bit with search engines too...

elgumbo · Jul 23, 2003, 04:20

One site I have just worked on didn't have SE friendly urls ( I didn't know what they where until I found Sitepoint !) and Google listed about 10 of its pages in their index.

After implementing the urls Google now shows

Quote:

Results 1 - 10 of about 253. Search took 0.28 seconds

I'm glad I did it.

greg.harvey · Aug 1, 2003, 03:10

There's also another good reason for SE friendly URLs. I have been told (on these forums, but I can't remember by whom... think it was aspen) that Google stops crawling sites with QueryStrings as a safe-guard against crashing someone's server.

Think about it. A QueryString is a sure sign there's some server-side activity going on. Google has no way of knowing how serious that activity is. So rather than crawling the site, hitting the server a few thousand times over the next few seconds and potentially crashing it out, Google takes the front page and maybe crawls down another three or four and then leaves it at that...

Apparently.

pippo · Aug 1, 2003, 03:21

...and Cool URI's don't change

Andrea

11viking · Aug 1, 2003, 14:20

All good arguments, but stilll I think it is silly that the dynamic sites don't get indexed like other sites. I still think that the search engines should provide a quick way of finding what you are looking for and not penalize websites for the technology being used to present it.

Why don't they make a crawler that can index sites at a lower pace when they notice that they are crawling a dynamic site?? I don't think you need to be a rocket scientist to program something like that. This way it won't bring down the servers.

This is the 21st century, right?

Jul 22, 2003, 12:57	#1
winchell SitePoint Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Memphis, TN Posts: 19	Search Engine Friendly URLs - Necessary anymore?? Google, AOLSearch, MSN, HotBot, and AlltheWeb all find GET queried addresses now. Is there any reason to go through the trouble of making URLs "friendly" ??

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Jul 22, 2003, 13:07	#2
Andy Tomaka SitePoint Evangelist Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: East Lansing, Michigan, USA Posts: 435	It's probably better to be safe than sorry. I would go ahead and use them if you can; it really isn't that much more work. I know that non-friendly URLs can be parsed, but there are so many rumors floating around about what works and what doesn't.

Jul 22, 2003, 14:55	#4
Ramiro S SitePoint Evangelist Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 404	I think yes... they can index it no but if the url looks non dynamic they will index the pages faster.

Jul 22, 2003, 15:08	#5
Gybbyl public static void brain Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Montana, USA Posts: 650	like 2 microseconds faster

Jul 22, 2003, 15:13	#6
Mike SitePoint Genius Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Canada Posts: 6,270	2 reasons: Humans prefer them Humans prefer them See, very good reasons to use them.

Jul 22, 2003, 15:17	#7
Gybbyl public static void brain Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Montana, USA Posts: 650	Unless you are just geeky beyond belief -- In that case, memorizing huge, obfuscated urls gives you a woody.

Jul 23, 2003, 03:05	#9
squidgeybidge SitePoint Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Posts: 1	Yes, but outside of geek land, people like to be able to see and remember URLs, and it gives them a good clue as to where they are in the site. Oh yes, you may not have noticed this, but having search terms in the url string helps a bit with search engines too...

Aug 1, 2003, 03:10	#11
greg.harvey Drupaler Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 3,299	There's also another good reason for SE friendly URLs. I have been told (on these forums, but I can't remember by whom... think it was aspen) that Google stops crawling sites with QueryStrings as a safe-guard against crashing someone's server. Think about it. A QueryString is a sure sign there's some server-side activity going on. Google has no way of knowing how serious that activity is. So rather than crawling the site, hitting the server a few thousand times over the next few seconds and potentially crashing it out, Google takes the front page and maybe crawls down another three or four and then leaves it at that... Apparently.

Aug 1, 2003, 03:21	#12
pippo FreeBSD The Power to Serve Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Italy Posts: 4,574	...and Cool URI's don't change Andrea

Aug 1, 2003, 14:20	#13
11viking SitePoint Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Spain Posts: 2	All good arguments, but stilll I think it is silly that the dynamic sites don't get indexed like other sites. I still think that the search engines should provide a quick way of finding what you are looking for and not penalize websites for the technology being used to present it. Why don't they make a crawler that can index sites at a lower pace when they notice that they are crawling a dynamic site?? I don't think you need to be a rocket scientist to program something like that. This way it won't bring down the servers. This is the 21st century, right?