multiple pages versus url parameters

[AndyMarsden]

Hi Guys,

My question is probably best ilustrated by an example.

In terms of SEO which do you think is better (or are they equal)

a) www.mywebsite.co.uk/stuff-in-london www.mywebsite.co.uk/stuff-in-york
or
b) www.mywebsite.co.uk/stuff?in=london www.mywebsite.co.uk/stuff?in=york

a) will obviously have lots more pages but b) is alot easier to manage in terms of a data driven website.

Basically multiple pages displaying data or one page extracting data from a db pased on url parameter.

i hope this makes sense.

Cheers

Andy

 

[retired_member21]

IMO

Forget parameters rule B out completely

If you want it easier to manage just do something like /stuff/in-london, /stuff/in-york that way can parameter pass.

 

[AndyMarsden]

Cheers for the feedback Nick,

After some googling URL re writing was the answer!

http://www.avangate.com/company/resources/article/url-rewriting.htm


Thanks again

 

[Admin]

I agree.

But beyond that, make the URL the same as the page TITLE tag for better SEO relevancy.

This is really simply to do automatically in Wordpress so if you are doing a large site I'd switch to WP before you do much more. Even if you are pulling data from your own local DB there are still tools to create posts from that for you.

In WP you do it by setting up custom permalinks:

/%category%/%postname%

Create Posts in a CATEGORY e.g YORK
Use Post Title as TITLE HTML tag, <h1> text and page URL eg
Grand Opera House

so this would give you:

domainname.co.uk/york/grand-opera-house

As I say this takes minutes in WP so don't spend hours writing custom code.

PM me if you want more on how to pull in your DB data.

Admin

 

[cc976a]

Are we still aware it's a problem though?

Playing devils advocate - this has been the rule for years, don't have parameters.

Is there any evidence to show one better than the other, or anything official from Google?

Parameter pages (especially if pages are dynamically created using a database) are generally easier, and can include separate Title, Description tags....wouldn't want to go through upheaval (outside WP) to change if not as much of a problem as what it was

Surely content is the driver in G's eyes rather than the structure of the page?