Using mod_rewrite For SEO URLs - Good or Bad Idea?
So People have been talking about using apache’s mod_rewrite capability in order to redirect their dynamic web URLs to something that looks static. In other words, instead of showing something like
example.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22044&page=3
example.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=26
you would show something like
example.com/forumname/title-of-thread-283.html
example.com/article/name-of-article.html
Apache calls mod_rewrite, the Swiss Army Knife of URL manipulation. If you are unfamiliar with what it does, or want to learn all the technical aspects of what it does, you can learn more from apache’s website.
Good or Bad Idea?
That all depends. It seems as though there are as many articles saying it’s a good idea as there are articles saying it’s a bad idea. So lets get technical for a minute and determine just what exactly you want to use mod_rewrite for in the first place and what you expect out of it.
Blogs
If you are using Wordpress as your blogging weapon of choice then there is no need to worry about using mod_rewrite seeing as how you can simply choose month and name from your permalinks option in your settings to modify your URL structure. I know what you are going to say next… “But I have already been blogging and I want all of my old articles to be redirected!” See, I told you. I’m psychic. You guys, girls and cats (I’m on to you felines) can just install the yoast permalink redirect plugin for wordpress.
I haven’t exactly looked at the code so I don’t know if it will be effective if you change your permalink structure from a custom one to another custom one. Though, Redirection seems to have many more features and much better functionality. If i were to choose to install one right now, I’d probably go with the Redirection purely for it’s power. The features look to be much better but it might take you longer to manage and get everything right, though, having not used it I can’t be completely sure. I like the idea of being able to track which URLs get redirected and how many times each URL gets redirected. The yoast plugin is very simple. Neither of them use mod_rewrite either.
So basically Wordpress is pretty SEO friendly out of the box. It’s has a simple structure format allowing bots to crawl and rank your site very easily. I bet I can guess what you are thinking now… “So if we shouldn’t use mod_rewrite for our blogs, why even write this post?” I bet you are really impressed at my psychic ability now aren’t you… I don’t blame you, I impress myself as well. Let’s go back to why one might be interested in using mod_rewrite for a minute. The answer is content management systems and forums!
Using mod_rewrite for Forums and CMS
So you run a forum and have no doubt run into a bunch of SEO mods for it. What are the real benefits of rewriting your URLs? Is it a good idea? Is it a bad idea? It’s a good thing you stopped by this blog because you obviously need my help (remember, I’m psychic).
Meh… There is no simple answer but in general it’s kind of a bad idea, kinda. In order to give you an idea of why, i’ll list some pros and cons of using mod_rewrite.
Cons
Google is fully capable of crawling dynamic web pages. There used to be a time where Google suggested you avoid using id=foo in your url because it would have trouble crawling your site. In that article, Google publicly states they have no problem crawling dynamic content and people shouldn’t be afraid to use them. Keep in mind that article is a few weeks from being two years old. Google has some of the best programmers and you can be sure they are fully aware of what type of websites they are ranking.
Server load. Depending on how much traffic you get to your forum or website, you can be sure there is going to be some sort of server load for all of your rewritten URLs.
There are also a few sources that suggest the benefit you receive from using keywords in your URL is minimal and that it’s more important to focus on your title, keyword density, meta description, meta keywords (aren’t extremely helpful anymore) and incoming links.
If you move a topic on your forum, you must realize that linked pages are going to get 404′d. Same thing with deleted topics. So you are going to have to take this into account when you moderate your website and over time, things can get dirty, real dirty.
Though, most believe keywords in URLs still do help to some degree… So, as you expected (no you aren’t as psychic as me) here are the…
Pros
They can cut down and simplify URLs with too many parameters. Having too many parameters in your URL makes it more difficult for bots to crawl.
They make your URL more human friendly, therefore generating more interest when you do show up in SERPs.
When utilized properly, they can take care of all duplicate content (yes, this can be done in robots.txt)
So is it a Good Idea or Bad Idea?
So my answer is, it’s up to you depending on your application and setup. If you are running VBulletin, the major popular vbseo modification probably isn’t going to be worth the money and there are some tools you might want to use instead. For more information, you should check out this forum post.
On my basketball forum, I actually have opted to use mod_rewrite using phpbb-seo’s mods. I’ve decided to use it because I wanted to use the rest of the tools phpbb-seo had to offer. Most of them were pretty good. So I downloaded their pre-modded phpbb3 updated version and ran a diff merge to my custom phpbb3 and added all their code. I haven’t noticed a difference in the speed of my site and everything looks pretty clean. Though, I’ve had to tell my moderators to lock threads if possible instead of deleting them and to leave a shadow of the topic in the forum if they are going to move the topic.
I’ve also felt it was a good option because it completely takes care of duplicate content for me. I thought I had it taken care of with my custom robots.txt rules but this way, I can be completely sure. I’ve also noticed that my individual forums are getting ranked much better and google is showing me some love. I love that google shows me love and you should love it too.
To sum it all up, there are certain applications where I believe it makes sense to use mod_rewrite for SEO URLs and other times when it might not make a difference. Though, if you are interested in learning more on how to rewrite URLS for yourself in your .htaccess or httpd.conf file, check out the htmlist guide for using mod_rewrite.
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Tags: Blogs, Forums, mod_rewrite, Redirect, SEO
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Hey, I’m glad that you liked my article on mod_rewrite. I enjoyed reading yours when I found it in the trackbacks of my article. You present a good perspective about its uses and when not to use it.