When URL rewrite can lead to un pretty URLs

[gfiorelli1]

Hi Mozzers. I've a client that has done a little bit of mess rewriting the URLs of its site. In fact, also the data base driven URLs are rewritten, but the dev forgot to change the space with "-", so that now the 95% of the URLs are like this one:

http://www.portalesardegna.com/search/Appartamenti e Residence/

Obviously not really a pretty URL.

I am not so sure if this issue has an SEO consecuences (in fact, the site ranks pretty well also with those kind of url), but I am thinking more on usability issue.

Could you suggest me any easy fix to this rewrite problem?

[ThomasHgenhaven]

I think Rand usually makes a very good point about non-pretty URLs: That there are some lost 2nd order benefits, because people find it hard to share them / link to them.

There is a great URL rewrite guide here that should help you edit the URLs easily: http://corz.org/serv/tricks/htaccess2.php

[gfiorelli1]

Ehehe... I think you were answering to my question while I was doing the same with yours.

My question was really about those second order benefits you talk about.

Thanks for link.

[ThomasHgenhaven]

Hah yes I noticed the same.

Ah okay - well I think the second order benefits are quite substantial. Even savvy web users get confuse when facing a URl with blanks in it. They look different and ugly when you paste them. So I would definitely make it a priority to get them changed to something prettier

[petrakraft]

Additionally to usability and seo purpose you can let them change the term "search" in the url - they have the english word in all three languages - perhaps they can change it to "vacance", "urlaub" and "holiday".

[gfiorelli1]

Good suggestion

[Getz.pro]

To change the URL to exclude the spaces you would simply change the link to include the dash and then parse it out. I must be missing the question as you already know this.

If you need to check for old links, the the PHP snippet I posted earlier would help catch and redirect those pages.

if (!$_GET['post']) {
    $location = "http://www.YourSite.com/jobs/";
       header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
    header("Location: {$location}");
    exit;

Cheers

[RyanOD]

Wondering why you would recommend this solution vs. confining such redirects to the .htaccess file. Thanks.