Need help on some basics

Aboul URL length, file names, hyphens...

[gutabo]

Hi again, I tried to do my homework(searching site+reading A LOT) but now I'm very confused...
Could you help me with some Q's?
1.- ON STATIC PAGES(.htm, .html): Does URL length matters?(i.e. long urls are penalized?)
2.- ON DINAMIC PAGES(.php, .shtml): Does URL length matters?(i.e. long urls are penalized?)
3.- (random question): are .shtml pages indexed/treated as dinamic pages?
4.- Do file names matter? (some say yes, other say nay)
5.- Do directory names matter? (see above)
6.- (in both cases) Do I use "-" or "_" as keyword separator?(in case I decide that filename and/or directory name matters)
7.- Does directory depth matter?(and if, how much?)
8.- I already have a sometimes-well-positioned site (google updates, anyone?), do I risk my actual positioning by revamping it with directory/file name changes and (directory) structure redesign, or do I just stick with the existing structure and focus on ______(fill blank)?

That's is, for now... I guess...
Thanks in advance!

[John_Caius]

1.- ON STATIC PAGES(.htm, .html): Does URL length matters?(i.e. long urls are penalized?)

No. But something spammy-looking with lots of keywords separated by hyphens might be.

2.- ON DINAMIC PAGES(.php, .shtml): Does URL length matters?(i.e. long urls are penalized?)

No. But Google doesn't always spider dynamic URLs - hence they won't rank at all. Forum search to find out the details, basically it can baulk at a?.

3.- (random question): are .shtml pages indexed/treated as dinamic pages?

Not if they don't have a? in the URL.

4.- Do file names matter? (some say yes, other say nay)

Probably, a bit. But not as big a factor as e.g. title, incoming links, anchor text.

5.- Do directory names matter? (see above)

See above.

6.- (in both cases) Do I use "-" or "_" as keyword separator?(in case I decide that filename and/or directory name matters)

- is better according to Googleguy apparently.

7.- Does directory depth matter?(and if, how much?)

What matters is number of clicks from the homepage. Directory depth affects the toolbar guessed PR as homepage PR minus directory depth - but the toolbar guessed PR is actually of no importance, it's the real PR that counts.

8.- I already have a sometimes-well-positioned site (google updates, anyone?), do I risk my actual positioning by revamping it with directory/file name changes and (directory) structure redesign, or do I just stick with the existing structure and focus on ______(fill blank)?

Check that the biggie optimisation things are done - more content, title, H1 text, incoming links, anchor text etc. - if they are absolutely 100% perfect and unimproveable (unlikely) then modify directory structure etc. Certainly getting deep content to be fewer clicks from the homepage will help lots but adding a simple sitemap will sort that one out. You'll almost always get more result for your time by hunting for more links and generating more content.

[BigDave]

169 character URL. Main site PR5, file 6 levels deep has PR3. The site is written using PHP. The file shows up first page of the SERPs for its most likely keywords. In the file and directory names the keywords are seperated with either _ or %20.

I guess what I am trying to say is that there are a lot of myths floating around, that might have been true in the past, but probably are not at this point.

Descriptive file and directory names are a good thing, even if they don't count for the SE. But I believe that they do. Directory depth, within reason, does not matter. Internal navigation on the other hand does matter.

If you are already ranking well, work on your internal navigation. If you make new pages, name them well. Generate more content, and get more links.

You will likely regret any attempt to totally redo your site.

[gutabo]

Thanks!
I still have some doubts...
And I will try to explain to my boss about it...
Any other advice?