What are the SEO implications of URLs that use a # in them?

[VMLYRDiscoverability]

I have several clients who have begun to ask questions about sites that are designed to look like a single page. When you click on a link, the URL changes but it uses a # before (i.e. http://www.kelloggs.com/teamusa**/#**/teamusa/athletes/kerri-walsh.html. What are the SEO implications of having a page set up this way?

I noticed that Google has indexed this page but the indexed URL does not include a #. Is Google indexing a separate version of this page?

Any insights would be really helpful!

Thanks

[irvingw]

I don't see the hash tag (#) in your example, but anything in the URL from the hash tag and after is ignored. There are no negative implications other than maybe you would be better in breaking up that one page into a few individually targeted pages for better SEO.

[VMLYRDiscoverability]

Thanks for the response Irving.

http://www.kelloggs.com/teamusa/#/teamusa/athletes/kerri-walsh.html

The hash is above in this location (teamusa/#/teamusa)

What is interesting is that in this example, individual athlete stories are ranking separately in the SERPs, despite the fact that they use a # to break up the URLs.

[irvingw]

That URL is not even indexed in Google

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=site:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kelloggs.com%2Fteamusa%2F%23%2Fteamusa%2Fathletes%2Fkerri-walsh.html&oq=site:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kelloggs.com%2Fteamusa%2F%23%2Fteamusa%2Fathletes%2Fkerri-walsh.html&gs_l=hp.3..0l4.1279.2443.0.2581.6.6.0.0.0.0.297.1467.2-5.5.0...0.0.eNJr1QGYP6E&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=117ed4fb9591a99f&biw=1920&bih=929

And this is the code in the source of that URL

 <title>Team USAtitle>

<meta name="<a class="attribute-value">description</a>" content="">

This is the real page though:

http://www.kelloggs.com/teamusa/athletes/kerr
i-walsh.html

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=kerri+walsh+kelloggs&oq=kerri+walsh+kelloggs&gs_l=hp.3...131.7450.1.9944.11.10.1.0.0.0.398.3113.2-6j4.10.0...0.0.ugiW4W_K0b0&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=117ed4fb9591a99f&biw=1920&bih=929

I checked to see if it is doing a 301 redirect, which it is not so for some reason they are appending /#/teamusa/

All athletes URLs are this way

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=site:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kelloggs.com%2Fteamusa%2Fathletes%2F&oq=site:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kelloggs.com%2Fteamusa%2Fathletes%2F&gs_l=hp.3...4779.5755.1.5810.2.2.0.0.0.0.279.279.2-1.1.0...0.0.tqByGOk-DS0&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=117ed4fb9591a99f&biw=1920&bih=929

for some reason (probably taking a short cut on installing the CMS that they built out to create these pages) someone in engineering decided they would do it this way. I would ask around the engineering dept and find out who set this up and maybe you can get some more insight into how it functions to get a better idea of the SEO implications.

As you can see, nothing past the hash is indexed in Google

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=site:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kelloggs.com%2Fteamusa%2F%23%2F&oq=site:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kelloggs.com%2Fteamusa%2F%23%2F&gs_l=hp.3...12131.12390.3.12570.2.2.0.0.0.0.280.280.2-1.1.0...0.0.jLz2OXmWQcY&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=117ed4fb9591a99f&biw=1920&bih=929

If this helped you out, please mark the question answered thanks!

[irvingw]

they are not ranking, the pages that are ranking are here:

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=site:www.kelloggs.com%2Fteamusa%2Fathletes%2F&oq=site:www.kelloggs.com%2Fteamusa%2Fathletes%2F&gs_l=hp.3...4274.6340.1.6521.11.10.1.0.0.1.312.2575.2-8j1.9.0...0.0.1ctP_sxy2-A&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=117ed4fb9591a99f&biw=1920&bih=929

do a search for "kerri walsh kelloggs" and look at your URL. when you click on the URL you are being redirected in some fashion to the one URL with the hash.

Has this been like this for a while, because if this is a new implementation it may not be SEO friendly, that's why I suggest you talk to the engineering dept and find out how it was implemented.

http://www.internetofficer.com/seo-tool/redirect-check/

Checked link: http://www.kelloggs.com/teamusa/athletes/rebe
cca-soni.html

Type of link: direct link

If google spiders these pages only to get tossed to other unindexable page (also I cannot see your robots.txt by the way)  then these pages that are now indexed may wind up getting deindexed:

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=site:www.kelloggs.com%2Fteamusa%2Fathletes%2F&oq=site:www.kelloggs.com%2Fteamusa%2Fathletes%2F&gs_l=hp.3...4274.6340.1.6521.11.10.1.0.0.1.312.2575.2-8j1.9.0...0.0.1ctP_sxy2-A&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=117ed4fb9591a99f&biw=1920&bih=929