Dynamic URLs and SEO

It is pointless to optimize a Web page without giving search engines easy access to that page's content. Navigation schemes and URL structures often act as a stop sign to search engine indexing.

URL structure can be a confusing topic. For example, people tend to assume a dynamic URL contains funky characters (e.g., "?," "=," "&"), as in "http://www.site.com/products.asp?product_no=25," as opposed to "http://www.site.com/hikingboots.html."

At first glance, it might seem the first URL is dynamic and the second one is static. However, a static-looking URL can be database-driven, and the dynamic-looking URL can actually be a static URL.

In truth, search engines don't wish to crawl Web sites with too many parameters in the URL. Search engine software engineers have a considerable amount of search data. They recognize URL patterns that are potentially problematic. Content management systems often generate problematic URLs.

Additionally, search engines limit the number of characters they'll crawl in a URL. This is partially due to known problems in URL structures and partially to Web site usability. Go to any SERP. Look at URL structures. Which is easiest for you, the searcher, to remember? Static-looking, shorter URLs are usually the easiest to remember.