Using a query string for linked, static landing pages - is this good practice?

[BD69]

My company has a page with links for each of our dozen office locations as well as a clickable map. These offices are also linked in the footer of every page along with their phone number.

When one of these links is clicked, the visitor is directed to a static page with a picture of the office, contact information, a short description, and some other information. The URL for these pages is displayed as something like http:/example.com/offices.htm?office_id=123456, with seemingly random ID numbers at the end depending on the office that remain static. I know first off that this is probably bad SEO practice, as the URL should be something like htttp://example.com/offices/springfield/

My question is, why is there a question mark in the page URL? I understand that it represents a query string, but I'm not sure why it's there to begin with. A search query should not required if they are just static landing pages, correct?. Is there any reason at all why they would be queries? Is this an issue that needs to be addressed or does it have little to no impact on SEO?

[AndrewClark]

Hey!

What's happening here is your website is loading a single offices.htm page and showing different data within that page depending upon the ID of the office selected. It's basically using the page as a template and filling in the blanks dependant upon the query.

The reason for it being there is simply because that is how your developer/agency has built your website. I would not recommend using this method in this instance as each office would be best suited to a unique page of their own as you've already mentioned.

For a better understanding of why it has been built in this manner I'd recommend talking to your developer.

Hope you found this useful.