Importance of SEO Friendly URLs

[6thirty]

Hey SEOZ!

How important do you all think SEO friendly URLs are to SEO. Here is an example:

Non: http://www.domain.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=2964

Friendly: http://www.domain.com/product_name_here.html

I have always heard mixed reviews but did an experiment comparing results on the same domain and actually noticed quite a difference with the friendly ones.

Thanks!

[6thirty]

Matt - Thanks for the valuable information. I will be sure to keep that in mind as I make the switch.

Thanks!

[6thirty]

Thanks for the resonse Ryan! I did not give much thought to either of your points as I Was focusing on rankings.  Thanks for the great info!

[Francisco_Meza]

Use friendly URLs. Do NOT use underscores. They are looked at as characters, not spaces. Here is Matt Cutts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3SFVfDIS5k

[RyanKent]

Clearly the friendly URL has the advantage. URLs are not a large ranking factor in and of themselves, but there are two additional effects to consider:

1. Friendly URLs affect CTR. Many users will examine a URL when deciding whether to click through or not.

2. Friendly URLs improve anchor text link juice flow. If your page URL is /watches then any links where the referring site simply copies your URL will have your product name (watches) in the URL.

[ResslerMotors]

I think the importance is very slowly diminishing (but will never really go away).  However, I believe it is necessary when you are in a competitive vertical with exact matched domains.  That way you can perfect the rest of the on-page parameters, and still not come up short because of an exact matched domain.