Page naming /?pid=26 - can Google index this?

[soxos]

Hi guys,
Is anyone familar with a page naming system that using variables like this

www.example.com/web/?pid=01
www.example.com/web/?pid=02

I have always used normal HTML / ASP / mod re-write etc, but a client has a site which they do not want changing!

I have always thougth page naming like this was a total no-no for the search engines, even to the point I thougth they wouldnt index them?

Sorry if this is daft question, but where page naming is concerned I have always stuck to what I know, and now im really concerned that page naming like the above has no chance to working.

Thx

[soxos]

I have found a few websites using this type of system to link to the pages, and I am yet to find one single page which is indexed!

This is rather worring. Perhaps I should just tell my client, that unless we can redo his structure there is little we can do?

[Shaddows]

To clarify; EXACTLY like that or more like

example.com/web/page?variable=01

If my example, its fine. My ecom site uses that structure and does very well for itself

[soxos]

Clarification

exactly like
http://example.com/topic/?pid=10

With all pages within that folder called
http://example.com/topic/?pid=11
http://example.com/topic/?pid=12
http://example.com/topic/?pid=13
etc....

My understanding is that Google will class all those pages as the same page (http://example.com/topic/) and individual pages (the ?pid=13 bit will not be indexed)

Unlike your there is no page specification!

So basically, if it can't be indexed, then any attempt to SEO the pages would be a waste of time... I am correct with this do you think?

In fact the only time I have seen this before is if people are trying to fake page rank, as every varible page gets the TBPR of the directory (even though its now even indexed, let a lone cached).

What do you think? Is there much different between my clients site and your own Shaddows?

[rainborick]

Google won't have any trouble with the URLs in the format of your examples. If you try searching on almost any common noun for a product and include the operator "inurl:pid" you'll find lots of examples. I've used a nearly identical query string several times with no problems.

The search engines, in general, are all pretty adept at handling query strings these days as long as you are very careful to keep the order of the parameters the same in all of your internal links. Best practice would probably include thoroughly validating the parameter values and returning 404's on errors.

[Shaddows]

exactly like
http://example.com/topic/?pid=10

I can't see there being a problem either, but its just weird having a query string attached to a folder. For no particular reason, I'd have it structured like
http://example.com/topic/page?pid=11

Every query string is counted as individual URLs (and they are infact different URLs). As rainborick alludes to, its letting the order of parameters be interchangable that causes problems, but that doesn't seem to be a problem in your case.

[edited by: Shaddows at 3:56 pm (utc) on Feb. 4, 2009]

[skweb]

No problem at all with this structure; great traffic and great ranks are also possible. Even AdSense ads are different on each page.