Best way to format pretty URLs for numeric IDs

Question

Alright, so let\'s say I\'m writing a forum application, and I want pretty URLs. However, all my tables use numeric IDs, so I\'m not sure the best way to format the URLs for tho

Answer 1

URL 1 is definitely suboptimal. URL 2 is attractive but you run the risk of confusion if tags collide, especially if they differ only in punctuation. So I'd say URL 3 is the clear winner.

Also note that just because you display URL 3 is no reason not to accept all 3, with the other two redirecting. If URL 2 is ambiguous, it should redirect to a disambiguation page.

Answer 2

I'm not convinced longer URL's are SEO trouble. The depth seems to be a bigger issue, and not by counting slashes, but by steps it takes to get from an indexed page with rank to the content page. I recently created a dummy test page titled /content/roofing/how-much-does-a-shingle-roof-cost.html and threw it on the server just to test pathways and make sure my directories were working correctly. I'm not even sure how google discovered the page but it did and it started getting traffic, so I had to give it content and make it part of the family. The dummy content was a copy of our about page so it wasn't empty, but I was surprised an unpromoted page would get traction, and think the URL had something to do with that.

Which brings up a slight alternative to the above 3 choices for a URL. What if you went with number 3 but added .html to the end? I generally do this with dynamic URL's but I have no concrete evidence that it's helpful. According to Google they brag that they can index dynamic URL's just fine and so there's no need to do URL rewrites at all. Google doesn't mind a bit if the other engines aren't as good at that. Several sites I trust add the html at the end (blogger for example) and it can't hurt, so I still do it.

Answer 3

I would go with option 2, as SEO can better understand.

Stack Overflow uses the third way, probably, that is the reason, Stack Overflow urls were not optimized for SEO. I am not sure in the above answer.

But In my experience with Google, Quite Often, I could see a solution from other forums, whereas stackoverflow solutions were almost invisible.

Best way to format pretty URLs for numeric IDs Best way to format pretty URLs for numeric IDs

if the both urls were one and the same, the SEO simply goes with option 2, which is less optimized.

Answer 4

I would think that the 2nd URL would be the best for SEO since it is meaningful and has less depth. It's nicer for people as well since you can look at the URL and know what the content is about.