Pretty URLs - Hype about nothing?

[Jason76]

Sometimes, you can make URLs contain the title and some say it's prettier and better for SEO. Nonetheless, some say it doesn't matter cause nobody pays attention to the URL and/or URL beauty is in the beholder.

Myself, I was a fan at first, but now I side with the cynics.

 

[Page]

what so pretty about that now huh

 

[Corzhens]

If you mean URL is the website name for the address, I still go for the pretty names. An example is a website about movies is GlobalPinoyMovies which is easily understood unlike Tondats which is kind of weird to me. Both URLs are about the local movies. But with SEO, I cannot comment if the pretty name is better or not.

 

[Jason76]

https://forumpromotion.net/threads/pretty-urls-hype-about-nothing.155535/ - fancy url

http://thechat.xyz/showthread.php?tid=258&pid=925#pid925 - no

 

[Mozzie]

I couldn't really care or less about how the URL is. If it gets to the site, then so be it

 

[Jason76]

I couldn't really care or less about how the URL is. If it gets to the site, then so be it

I bet the SEO thing (for pretty URLs) is a fable or exaggerated.

 

[Mozzie]

I don't really see the point in it, some do, i don't.

 

[Page]

already have that with all IPB sites 😛

 

[Shannon Apple]

Well, they're usually referred to as "friendly" urls, not "pretty." 😛 I was wondering what you were talking about til I read through the thead. Personally, I'm not sure if it helps SEO or not, I have no data to suggest either way, but they are certainly user friendly at the very least. If you send someone a link, they know exactly what the topic is that they are being linked to.

Our programmer admin changed our site over to "full friendly urls" last year because he believes it's better for SEO. I tend not to argue with the professionals and leave them to it, they know better. Eheheh!

 

[Azareal]

I find that it looks more professional and it really pays to have a nice professional feel for a site, it feels as if it's a high quality job rather than a rushed botch job.
It's not particularly hard to implement either, just pure gain, do be careful though as any change to the URL structure can send shock-waves through search engines for a while.

I remember seeing an article by Google about it, but I've lost track of it, maybe they removed it, but they seem to like friendly URLs.

 

[Lemon]

This article suggests that the "pretty" urls are the way to go for SEO. It makes sense to me. Even if that's not true, I agree with Azareal, they just look more professional when they're in the friendly url format.

 

[Ash]

I bet the SEO thing (for pretty URLs) is a fable or exaggerated.

I'm pretty sure that's it not a fable and is actually good for search engine optimization. It also looks better especially for blogs but I guess it's not a huge priority for forums.

 

[Jason76]

I bet the SEO thing (for pretty URLs) is a fable or exaggerated.

I'm pretty sure that's it not a fable and is actually good for search engine optimization. It also looks better especially for blogs but I guess it's not a huge priority for forums.

There are actually some viciously opposed to it and others who are neutral. What do you suppose most web developers think?

 

[vgchat]

and what are "their" reasons for being against it?

 

[Jason76]

and what are "their" reasons for being against it?

They say visitors don't care about URL looks and that it's shallow-minded.

 

[vgchat]

I think I'd disagree with that line of thinking. Plus, you have to think about how the crawlers see the url as well. I use a free mod to "rewrite" my urls and do plenty of other stuff such as
*add canonical links
*dynamic meta tags
*Add rel="nofollow" to External URLs
*as well has handling sitemaps & Automatic Sitemap Search Engine Submission
and plenty of other features that it handles as well.

If I saw a link in a thread, I'd rather know the title of it, instead of going to "thread 12,385".

Oh and using pretty urls has been proven to make a difference.

 

[Jason76]

If I saw a link in a thread, I'd rather know the title of it, instead of going to "thread 12,385".

Yeah, but on XF and others, you can also make it fetch the title.

 

[Page]

Pretty URLs for pretty lady's

 

[vgchat]

If I saw a link in a thread, I'd rather know the title of it, instead of going to "thread 12,385".

Yeah, but on XF and others, you can also make it fetch the title.

Yep you can do this with the one I mentioned as well, dragonbyte seo.

 

[Kaynil]

I don't how much in the minority I might be but I definitely think they have given me a positive experience.

I don't doubt some people don't care for them and I won't say that it would be a deal breaker for me, just a nice extra. But from there to think no one cares is a bit of a stretch.

Friendly URLs allow us to have an easy time browsing our history data if there is something that got our attention. To have an idea before we click on a link given to us without context what we're getting ourselves into. Also, for the disabled that rely on text-to-speech tools and browsers with limitations, they can help.

If having them is not harming and can potentially make things a bit better. Why not taking the extra step?