Dynamic vs. static URLs

[rankmenow]

Hello Everyone,

I'm new here on MOZ and just getting back into SEO (a little bit) after not doing anything 'myself' for a couple of years.  Currently my individual URLs show as: https://www.example.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=107 (dynamic responsive site).

I can switch it to a static site, so the individual product pages read as:https://www.example.com/catalog/category name/product name-107.html

It's still a long URL, but it would be keyword rich.  Some of my current dynamic pages are indexed,and due to an upgrade I had to do several months back, I already have some redirects (301) from my php extensions to the one listed above.  This is my long explanation to my following questions:

1. Does having a dynamic or static site matter when ranking in search engines

2. I already have some redirects coming my older site to this dynamic site, so I would have to make more directs from the dynamic site to my static site - is this okay to do?

I'm really at a loss, a couple of years ago, I ranked 1-3 (on Page 1) on Google for all my keywords, (all White Hat work), and now I'm into great abyss of no mans land of the internet (ranked on Page 3+)

Thank you for any and all help from everyone!

~Sandra

[Hutch42]

The question is not dynamic v. static, it should be what is most readable for your visitors.  If you can simplify your urls for visitors then you should as it makes the experience better, which in turn is what Google wants websites to do.

[Fuel]

Hi there,

Rand did write an article on this very topic a few years ago. While the content is a bit dated, it is still relevant. Take a look here:

http://moz.com/blog/dynamic-urls-vs-static-urls-the-best-practice-for-seo-is-still-clear

Hope this helps!

[MonicaOConnor]

Hutch has the best answer here, it needs to be readable by the users. To add to what he said, it is also important to know that the dynamic URLs can and will be crawled, This can lead to errors, specifically overly dynamic URLs and 404 errors. It is good if you can keep them clean, but that is difficult. I prefer to use static URLs because I can control them and optimize my pages better.

[rankmenow]

Yeah, but do visitors really even look at what is in the URL?  I personally don't care (from a shopper's point of view) what URLs say.  Am I alone on this thought?

[rankmenow]

• Yeah, but do visitors really even look at what is in the URL?  I personally don't care (from a shopper's point of view) what URLs say.  Am I alone on this thought?

[MonicaOConnor]

I look at the URL. I don't know if it is because I am trained to, or because I copy and paste a lot. Using Dynamic URLs means setting parameters in GWT, it means constantly watching for 404 errors. In my opinion it isn't worth the time and effort where a static URL is implemented once, and you move on with the rest of your page.

[rankmenow]

Thank you for the article.  I just read it.  Some great information.  I would love an update to it, since it's from 2008, unless an update is not necessary, if it is still relevant.

So is the consensus, switch to static?  (so much work - uugh).

[Hutch42]

Sandra,  be very careful with the statement you just made. One of the most dangerous things you can start doing is putting yourself in as a stand in for your customers.  Google has seen correlation between search relevance and clean URLs, and when looking at web pages a clean url reinforces a persons want to click on it (page trustworthiness), while a large alpha-numeric string looks worse and is viewed as less trustworthy by the average person.

[rankmenow]

Thank you Hutch42.  I guess I have alot of work ahead of me with switching to static and making sure I get all the redirects pointed correctly.

[rankmenow]

Thank you to everyone for all of your help and suggestions.  I guess this will be on the top of my 'to do list' switching from dynamic to static.  I already have some 301's in place from my site had a .php extension to the new extension now with ./?... etc.  Is it okay to re redirect them?  How many redirects are too many?

Thank you so much!

Sandra

[rankmenow]

Thank you to everyone for all of your help and suggestions.  I guess this will be on the top of my 'to do list' switching from dynamic to static.  I already have some 301's in place from my site had a .php extension to the new extension now with ./?... etc.  Is it okay to re redirect them?  How many redirects are too many?

Thank you so much!

Sandra