URL Rewriting
Posted Tuesday 18th December 2007 by admin in SEO.
Search Engine Optimisation Techniques
The world of search engine optimisation (SEO) is a strange place to explore. There are many different ways to improve visibility in search engines and especially in Google. There is a right way to improve natural search engine rankings and a wrong way. Sadly many choose to turn to the dark side and exploit search engines in an incorrect manner. They use ‘black hat’ techniques to gain quick and easy positions without considering the consequences.
The reason for writing this jabber of content is to explain a fairly new technique to help search engines index your site to its full potential. This technique is called URL rewriting. It is a technique used to manipulate URLS to display more than just query strings.
Let me tell you a little about myself. I have been working in the search engine optimisation industry for 2 years and have some great experience in dealing with many SEO problems that come about with new and old sites. I have dealt with many big Ecommerce sites and revamped them to be extremely SEO friendly, not only on page but also off page.
I would like to start by explaining what I believe to be a great SEO technique that we have been using to help sites with their SEO.
URL Rewriting
URL rewriting is a handy way of manipulating URLS to be both user friendly and search engine friendly. This technique has been about for a number of years and has not really been used to its full potential for SEO purposes. I have found that many SEO companies and developers find this a pointless task, especially when building or working with a big Ecommerce site. The main problem is that it takes time to implement. However, if you spend the time to develop the URL rewrite you will benefit from it in the long run.
The Problem with URLS that look like this
Heart%20Rate%20Monitor%20(Black)%20&category=Polar%20Running&count=0&quantity=1
is that they are too long and have no relevant information contained within, e.g. key phrases. I have found that database driven pages that generate long URL parameters do not list as well as a URL that has a friendly parameter.
The URL above can be modified using something called a MOD_REWRITE using Apache’s Htaccess file also know as hypertext access. The Htaccess file is Apache’s directory level configuration file, you can use this file to configure many server side settings from customizing a 404 page to advanced URL rewrites.
To perform a URL rewrite you must have a good understanding of the Apache’s Htaccess file and how it works. URL rewrites work on the basis of regular expression to match patterns within your URL. If you have the knowledge to put this in place you can turn an unfriendly URL into a much cleaner URL that can contain relevant information to whatever page you are on. For example the URL above can be turned into something like this;
http://www.domain.co.uk/product/Polar-RS200-Heart-Rate-Monitor/
In the long run, not only will you have friendly URLS for search engines to index, but you will also have URLS that have relevant information contained within them that users understand. The rewritten URL will tell the user where they are, what they are browsing and ultimately what they are buying – at the end of the day this is what the site was designed for.
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