Rel=cannonical + 301 redirect

[masterpete]

Hi All

I am currently working on a DotNetNuke site. I have enabled friendly URL's which have changed the url structure from the default setting of TabId=x to whatever the page name is set as.

I will use the following page as an example -

www.notarealdomain./graphicdesign.aspx

Now I would like to know if it would be worth my time to change this to "/graphic-design.aspx through the use of a 301 redirect and/or a rel=can.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

[NakulGoyal]

Is there a way for you to use a programmatic change instead of a 301 redirect ? Since these are brand new URLs, it would make sense to investigate if that is doable. I am sure there's a way out there. All the current logic is doing is getting rid of the space, however it should be replaced with a hyphen. The data is there, it's just a matter of replacing it with a separator.

[coremediadesign]

Hi Peter,

I don't think this would make a massive difference, but if you can separate words by hyphens then it is definitely a good idea, however bear in mind that most of the domains have their keywords joined together and they are still recognised by search engines therefore if you can - do - if it's too much of a hassle - leave it the way it is.

You will find that many people have their own opinion about it, but form my personal experience the url will be as good as its content. I have one website, which uses underscores - these are not seen as word separators and the site ranks very well due to its content. I have another without rewriting - simply using url parameters as ?page=1 - and it's also ranked high.

In short - it's good to have hyphens, but I wouldn't expect it to make a significant difference.

[masterpete]

Hi Sebastian

Thank you very much for such a quick response,

I think you have just confirmed my "gut" feeling. The pages were already doing  well for a "newish" site with some big initial jumps up the rankings.

Not going to try and fix something that is not broken.

Really appreciate your advice, really think that this community is the best EVER.

Thank you

Peter

[coremediadesign]

I'm glad I could help Peter - thanks for accepting my answer.

[KeriMorgret]

I'd see if there was a good way to get rid of the aspx so if you ever change technologies, you can keep those same URLs and minimize future redirects (and it makes your URLs a little bit shorter). I don't know if you can get rid of it or not, not that far into my own DNN site upgrade (upgrading a forum site and moving to friendly URLs, new version of DNN and active forums, and all kinds of fun stuff).

[masterpete]

Hi Keri

Thanks for your input. As far as I’m aware DNN can't handle URLs without the file extensions, always seemed a bit behind when it came to SEO and is definitely not the most SEO friendly CMS out there.

Would like to get rid of the file extenstion as it just seems a bit more use friendly from the start and as you righly said this will shorten the url a bit as well.

Thanks again,