What to do when a Bad URL has to stay?

[Boogily]

I am working with a friend on optimizing a site that has a troublesome set of issues.

The company has integrated some ERP system that cannot be changed or removed and it is creating goofy URL's. So my question is which URL do I build links to? the www.xxx.com or the crazy URL that it is being redirected to.

Site URL: www.nauticalchartsonline.com
redirect: http://www.nauticalchartsonline.com/n.c/NauticalChartsOnline.html

I would greatly appreciate constructive feedback.. Thanks, Jeannie

[moldybacon]

Can't you just do a quick .htaccess url rewrite to remove the /n.c?

If you want the links to have more value sending them to the actual /n.c/ directory would be better (as long as there is no plan to change the url stucture in future.)

[Boogily]

Moldy, they will not allow me to change URL structure and know SEO will be limited.  We are going to go ahead.  Your answer was really helpful.

[TellThemEverything]

Send links to the new (ugly) URL. Consistency is critical, all links to the same content must use the same URL. The actual URL is less important; more a "would be nice" rather than a "must have"

[KeriMorgret]

I agree with James here. Especially if you have anchor text in the link, people aren't going to see that URL as much. While it's not the best URL, I've certainly seen worse.

Do you have any update you can give us with any interesting lessons learned or things that you did?