Dynamic URL rewriting

is "=" as big a problem as "&" and "?"

[Adam_C]

A colleague of mine is in the process of rewriting dynamic URLs as static for an ASP site on IIS.

He's got a solution that will replace the "?" and "&" sybmols with / but has been unable to replace the "=".

So, we have dynamic URLs such as:

http://www.example.com/dynamic.asp?query1=abc&query2=def

written as

http://www.example.com/dynamic.asp/query1=abc/query2=def

So, I'm wondering whether this is enough to make a URL look static for the purposes of improving spiderability, or are the "=" signs still too much of a give away?

[ukgimp]

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/891

There are two packages mentioned on here.

[Balboa]

If the queries are in a specific order, or a predictable order, you can lose the query1= and query2= altogether - look at how Amazon format their urls.

[cgj5204]

here is some links i found
there is a great articles here are some url's
[codeproject.com...]

[15seconds.com...]
(These is the best solutions with out reconfigure the server only for the aspx extension)

there are some commercial components here is alist
[iisrewrite.com...]
[smalig.com...]
[opcode.co.uk...]
[isapirewrite.com...]
[blunck.info...]

[Adam_C]

HMmmm

Lots of information, but it seems no one wants to answer the original question.

Are these '=' signs going to cause a problem?

I know they could be eliminated, but if it aint broke don't fix it.

Is it broke?

[RossWal]

I don't know. You might have better luck in the SEO forums as the question being asked is not specific to MSFT.

[swizz]

Hi cgj5204,

There is a new one. [iismods.com...]

- SwiZZ

[Adam_C]

I don't know. You might have better luck in the SEO forums as the question being asked is not specific to MSFT.

I know. I started it in a SEM research forum, but someone moved it.

[cgj5204]

well dynamic URL are nor really a problem for Google
i have a few sites using =? in the URL and its indexed just make sure there is a link from the homepage or site-map
session id is a problem for googlebot, don't use them in the URL
and about id (like product.aspx?id=1
some say there is a problem that Google thinks it s a session id, i have 2 sites using id for the above example i i found no problem and all indexed by Google,
i hope this helps

[Adam_C]

Google will index some dynamic URLs and not others, generally relating to the complexity of the URLs.

For the site in question, the URLs are not getting indexed, IMO as a result of the complexity. (There are no session IDs, or anything that looks like them in use)

So, here we go again...

is there a potential problem using = signs in an otherwise static-looking URL?

[Jenstar]

Perhaps try in the Google News [webmasterworld.com] forum, since you are concerned with how Google indexes them (it really isn't for SEM research). You should be able to get a Google specific answer on the = question in the Google forum though.

[Adam_C]

Perhaps try in the Google News forum, since you are concerned with how Google indexes them

I'm equally concerned how/whether Inktomi would index them.