landing page url strings

best approach

[Golf_Dude]

Hi,

I'm creating a new site with many landing pages which are focusing on key content, which obviously i want se's to index.

What's the best approach regarding the landing page url strings, as our programmer has suggested the ending string could be numeric from the database, but i'm thinking they should contain the key words that the page is about, i.e. if i have a page about say televisions, the url should be -

www.mywebsite.co.uk/televisions

rather than

www.mywebsite.co.uk/12345

Is this something i should be concerned about in terms of setting the pages up so they stand the best chance of gaining good ranking etc?

Thanks.

[webboy1]

I would think having /word would be better than /12345 for a couple of reasons, nut just SE related.

We use this technique in some of our advertising to guide customers ot specific pages. Having our URL/RelevantWord makes gives us a friendly URL to promote. Imagine the customer having to remember the number!

In terms of SE's, yes, the word would have more relevance than the number.

My background is in programming so I can see why a numeric alternative would be handy i.e. unique key from a database allowing you to use an admin page to update the site ... but this can also be done with keywords.

If it were me, for varying reasons, I'd go with a relevant word than a numberic value on this.

[Golf_Dude]

thanks for your tips webboy1, much appreciated.

[jaybee3]

What if software that i use requires that the URL string to have the DB ID (i.e-"prod#=77777", as opposed to "widget1"). How important is the URL string for SEs? Important enough to choose another software provider?

[webboy1]

Many companies do use the ID for obvious reasons, mainly that it is unique and eliminates any potential for product duplication or confusion when the DB and script are doing there work.

Having the product name in some form would be an added bonus, but it's not a disaster if it isn't there. You simply need to make sure the rest of your page is SEO'd to as high a standard as possible.

In the case above, I suggested using widget1 rather than an ID because they are only in development. It's easier to make those decisions at the start than later in the process. If the choice is there, then having the product name in the URL would be good.

If however you don't have the choice (as in your case) I would concentrate on on-page SEO as much as possible to see if it has an impact. Shopping softwares can be expensive, so I would suggest other factors (than just whats in the string) would need to be taken into consideration before changing.

[potato95]

We get round the uniqueness problem by combining the #id with the "string" so in the above case it would be...

www.mywebsite.co.uk/12345-television

Not ideal but seems to be the best of both worlds and should be simple enough for your programmer.