Dynamic URLs Appearing on Google Page 1\. Convert to Static URLs or not?

[mindflash]

Hi,

I have a client who uses dynamic URLs thoughout his site. For SEO purposes, I've advised him to convert dynamic URLs to static URLs whenever possible.

However, the client has a few dynamic URLs that are appearing on Google Page 1 for strategically valuable keywords.  For these URLs, is it still worth it to 301 them to static URLs? In this case, what are the potential benefits and/or pitfalls?

[MarieHaynes]

I think you may need to provide more information about the dynamic urls.  In my opinion, if you have something like,

www.example.com/testpage.php?id=3

then that's fine,

but if you have:

www.example.com/testpage.php?id=3&ref=23&productcode=12&sillyvariable=xyz&date=today&somethingelse=somethingelse,

then that's not good.

With that being said, if the pages are ranking well, why change them?

It might also be a situation where you need a rel canonical.  So, for example, if you had two pages that were the same that were ranking such as:

www.example.com/testpage.php?id=1

along with

www.example.com/testpage.php?id=1&productcode=4

then you'd want to rel canonical the pages to the appropriate one.

[RyanKent]

I agree with Marie but I will add one twist.

You mentioned the pages are ranking on page 1 of Google. More information is needed. Are they ranking as #1? or #10? What are the client's goals?

If a client is not presently #1 but is focused on earning the #1 spot, then I would go through and perform even minor tweaks to the page such as correcting the URL. I am probably in the minority on this topic.

Keep in mind URL weight for ranking is very low. The primary value comes whenever a user uses the URL as a link to the site. If you find your site's visitors copy and paste the links into forums or other articles, then the importance of solid URLs increases.

[mindflash]

Thanks for the advise. The website name is Teachervoice.com. The site appears at #9 in Google results for the term 'elementary school teacher interview questions'. (#7 for high school teacher interview questions)

URL looks like this: http://teachervoice.com/ReviewStream.aspx?ios=1&lg=11&hg=13

Change it to static or leave it as-is?