Forum Moderators: open
showtype.ww?class=123 (about 50 distinct pages)
showsku.ww?class=123&type=456 (about 500)
showdetail.ww?sku=1234 (about 4,000)
It's my opinion that the SE's count these approximately 4,550 pages as just three because of them being dynamic (don't know for sure but I'm sure y'all do).
Regardless, because of the flexibility of our platform, we can just as easily do the following:
red_widgets.typ?class=123
blue_widgets.typ?class=456
red_widget_hats.sku?class=123&type=1234
red_widget_shoes.sku?class=456&type=1234
red_widget_hats_style1.prd?sku=123
red_widget_hats_style2.prd?sku=456
red_widget_shoes_style1.prd?sku=1234
red_widget_shoes_style2.prd?sku=4567
This is extremely easy for us to do it just requires some major re-writing, not difficult mind you, just major because of the scope.
This would accomplish giving us a distinct page for each of our approx. 4,550 class/type/skus. Now, my questions are:
I'm assuming that URL's like above are better than URL's like class123_type456.sku. However, we are going to have to maintain a "deprecated" list if we do the keyword_rich.sku version of the URL so that we never mess up a keyword_rich.sku page we no longer carry or have reorganized into a different keyword_rich.sku category. Our Class and Type numbers, however, almost never change, just what they represent may, if you get my meaning.
Question #1: is the keyword_rich.sku version worth enough to warrant the extra administration of a "deprecated" list? (I can somewhat answer my own question here because I know our users would appreciate seeing keyword_rich.sku rather than class123_type456.sku because it would immediately make more sense to them)
(on a related note, we are going to maintain the old showtype.ww style in such a "deprecated" list so that we don't loose the power of those pages' PR)
Question #2: I have read that Google doesn't like?Parameter pages, I'm assuming "doesn't like" means it ignores the parameters but not the pages. True? Not true? Because I am wanting to keep the parameters as well. In fact, red_widgets.sku may not be able to return the same results as red_widgets.sku?class=123 (where 123 is the class that red widgets belongs to). I can make it parse the <red>_<widgets>.sku out as well, and be able to display the appropriate page, it just would require a lot more programming.
I appreciate any input on this.
I'll have a crack at these.
(1) Firstly, I'd definitely keep the deprecated pages through at least one update. I have been through the same changes and have been using java servlet rewriting to effect the same sort of changes except that I have also added in the item number into my URL before the? and have stripped it out computationally and internally forwarded it to the correct?param= page.
This is a process I started back in January and I have been very careful to keep links to the older pages there for at least one deepcrawl/update cycle so that I know Google has at least visited the new pages in the new format before moving on.
(2) No I do not believe the parameter value makes any difference as long as you do not have a dynamic variable in there.
So if you have a page that says prodyct?pid=xxx and xxx is consistent for that product then all will be well.
Now If you have say a session variable in there that is random, looks random or has an air of being random about it then the SE's *may* consider the URL to be to a random or time-specific page and hence not index it.
However, in general, from my knowledge gained at my site your actions are wise and will not cause problems for you if phased in.
