URL rewriting: can it hurt rankings?

[member22]

Hi,
I am just wondering if url rewritting can hurt my google ranking ?
Thanks

[Receptional Andy]

By 'URL rewriting' I assume you mean rewriting as in using 'friendly' URLs like /example-products/green-widget as opposed to /example.ext?product=green-widget.

This type of URL rewriting can't hurt a site in and of itself, since Google (or any search engine) will have no way of knowing that URLs have been rewritten - it all happens behind the scenes.

Of course, there's potential for harm if the rewriting is not implemented correctly (e.g. if both the original and rewritten URLs are exposed to indexing). And changing existing URLs always has the potential for problems and requires a planned migration strategy.

[g1smd]

One piece of harm comes if Google can see both URL formats, so it is a good idea to also redirect the unwanted format to the wanted format too.