URL Comparison

Buy.com - http://www.buy.com/prod/sony-vaio-cr150e-b-laptop-computer-notebook-intel-core-2-duo-t7100-1/q/loc/101/204777399.html

Shopping.com - http://www.shopping.com/xFS?KW=Sony+Laptop+CR150E%2FB+&CLT=SCH&x=0&y=0

Amazon.com - http://www.amazon.com/Sony-VGN-CR150E-Notebook-Processor-Premium/dp/B000RMQ29Y

With both Buy and Shopping, a user has almost has no idea what the URL might point to. With Amazon’s logical URL, however, it is easy to guess that a review of a Sony Laptop CR150E/B is the likely topic of the page.

In addition to the issues of briefness and clarity, it's also important to keep URLs limited to as few dynamic parameters as possible. A dynamic parameter is a part of the URL that provides data to a database so the proper records can be recovered, i.e. n=3031001, v=glance, category id=145, etc.

In an ideal site, there should never be more than two. Search engine representatives have confirmed on legion functions that URLs with more than 2 dynamic parameters may not be spidered unless they are perceived as significantly important (i.e. have many, many links pointing to them).

Well written URLs have the extra benefit of doing as their own anchor text when copied and pasted as links in forums, blogs, or other online locales. In the Amazon example, a search engine might see the URL: http://www.amazon.com/Sony-VGN-CR150E-Notebook-Processor-Premium/dp/B000RMQ29Y and give ranking credit to the page for terms in the URL like Amazon, Sony vgn, Notebook. The phrasing and breaching of terms is subject to the search engine's analysis, but the chance of making this extra credit makes spelling friendly URLs even more worthy.

Title tags, in gain to their priceless use in directing the keyword terms for rankings, also help cause click-through-rates (CTRs) from the results pages. Most of the search engines will use a page's title tag as the blue link text and headline for a result thus, it is important to make them instructive and obligating without being overly "salesy". The best title tags will make the targeted keywords striking, help brand the site, and be as clear and concise as possible.