How Additional Characters and Numbers in URL affect SEO

[TommyTan]

Hi fellow SEOmozers,

I noticed that a lot of websites have additional characters and words at the end of the URL in addition keyword optimized URL.  Mostly for E-Commerce sites

For example: www.yoursite.com/category/keyword?id=12345&Keyword--Category--cm_jdkfls_dklj  or wwww.yoursite.com/category/keyword#83939=-37292

My question is how does the additional characters or parameters(not necessarily tracking parameters) affect SEO? Does it matter if i have additional keywords in the additional stuff in the URL (1st url example)?

If you can provide more information, that would be helpful.

Thank you!

[WilliamKammer]

I've never experienced a noticable, direct effect in this regard, and have experience with ranking pages well with crazy parameters. As long as things are canonicalized properly and the system isn't creating a bunch of duplicate pages with different parameters, you should be fine.

[TommyTan]

Hi William,

Yup, totally understand that what's best for user is best for search engine.  I also agree that having a simple and clean URL www.yoursite.com/category/keyword is definitely better and has more benefits than www.yoursite.com/category/keyword?id=1234%Keyword-_-......

Let's not compared them to the optimized URL but what do you effect does it have on SEO?  Does it harm the site in general with this type of URL?  Or no effect at all since it also included the keywords in the front and the parameters don't play a role.

[WilliamKammer]

When in doubt, the answer is almost always the same as the answer to, "What is best for the user?"

Users can't make sense of all those parameters, and bots aren't likely to either. A site like Amazon.com or Canon.com can get away with it, because they have so many other factors going for them. Also, some systems create these parameters automatically, and can't easily be optimized.

So, to answer your question: It's best not to have those parameters. Users like it without them, and it makes it easier for people to link to you, since URLs are more memorable. On the other side of that, it's not the end of the world if you can't do this in an easy manner and your time might be better spent elsewhere.

[TommyTan]

Hi,

Thanks for the article, it help answer some of my questions. However, the examples in the article compared 2 not optimized URLs with 1 keyword included URL. It makes sense that the 3rd URL will perform better as it includes keyword for search engine, users to understand what the page is about and all the other benefits from optimizing the URL.

1. Amazon.com - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007TJ5OG/102-8372974-4064145?v=glance&n=502394&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&n=3031001&s=photo&v=glance
2. Canon.com - http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=145&modelid=11158
3. DPReview.com - http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canonsd400/

However, in my first example:  www.yoursite.com/category/keyword?id=12345&Keyword--Category--cm_jdkfls_dklj

The URL included keywords which tell users what the page is about but it also included additional dynamic parameters.

I'm just wondering if these additional dynamic parameters play any role in SEO.  Harm or benefit?

[LesleyPaone]

This is a pretty good explanation, http://moz.com/learn/seo/url