How does Google look at strings added to a URL
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For example:
http://localhost:3000/en-US/app/a-knsmtrhqrqs/personal
where knsmtrhqrqs is a string
Can Google tell this is a string and what's their policy? Will it hurt rankings?
Thank you.
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What we're trying to accomplish is to have a non-sequential string for secure applications without a user login (due to business reasons). The string is a unique identifier for a specific application in our system, and will always point at the same form.
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Well, if it's a static URL that won't change and always renders the same content - it's still below optimal. What could a search engine, less a user understand from that URL? (I realize you're working on a local build.)
If it doesn't always render the same content, or the same content can be rendered by a different string - you're headed into duplicate content, big time. One could possibly set a canonical, but I tend to hope in one hand.
It sounds like you're going to run into crawl problems, backlink problems and a mess of other things.
Could you give me a little more background about what you're trying to accomplish? I'm pretty sure The Googles could tell if/when content is generated in a programmatic way. I'm also pretty sure The Googles wouldn't like it.
(Seriously, how much was I derping in the first sentence?)
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I don't think they look at them negatively, but it will dilute your overall keyword in the url ranking. Also it might get you some weird classifications for your pages too. Like say that your string on one page happened to be the model number of some product, or a mpn of a product. It might make that page rank for something totally un-intended.
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