How does Google look at strings added to a URL
-
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.
-
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.
-
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?)
-
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.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Why is Google displaying meta descriptions for pages that are nowhere contained in said page metas?
Certain search keywords are pulling up incorrect page titles and meta descriptions for our site. I've looked through our code, and the text used by Google in the search results is nowhere found inside our site. I've also looked at previous iterations of our site from over a decade ago and still haven't found it. I then searched specifically for the exact phrased incorrect meta descriptions and found a long list of spammy sites linking to our domain with the exact, incorrect meta description. Is this why Google is displaying the incorrect data, and how do I get Google to use the meta descriptions from my actual site?
Web Design | | Closetstogo0 -
Moving servers which means moving ip address but using the same URL. Would it harm the website's SEO?
Hello everyone, The server (in-house) which we use to host our website is a bit old. We are using CDN77 for our static content. What if I move all our website to the CDN service? meaning I use their storage capability and just have our url point to the IP address they provide. Would that hurt our rankings?
Web Design | | Edgar-Cerecerez0 -
Looking for a developer with Volusion experience
We are looking for experienced developer that specializes in Volusion sites. Thanks in advance! Tony 714-744-1926
Web Design | | OCFurniture0 -
Google HTML, CSS and javascript styleguides ?
Who's following the Google style guides especially in HTML, CSS and javascript? What are the benefits of following the style guides? I am thinking of sending the style guides to our web development team before we launch our new site but I think there might be some conflicts. I'm an SEO and not programmer or web developer and I'm sure there are some "rules" that these web dev guys should follow and break as well. Thanks in advance! 🙂
Web Design | | esiow20130 -
Does google prefer expanded text to text that you have to mouse over to show?
Does a long scrolling page of text perform better than a page that has the content in sections that have to be moused over to be seen? Are there any articles or research on this?
Web Design | | SirSud0 -
Empirical Data on the effect of embedded Google Maps on Search Ranking
Does anyone have any empiric data on the effect of an embedded map on SERP's? Please understand that I already have anecdotal info and a personal opinion. I am looking for data. Thanks
Web Design | | RobertFisher0 -
Do Pages That Rearrange Set Off Any Red Flags for Google?
We have a broad content site that includes crowdsourced lists of items. A lot of the pages allow voting, which causes the content on the pages (sometimes the content is up to 10 pages deep) to completely rearrange, and therefore spread out and switch pages often among the (up to 10) pages of content. Now, could this be causing any kind of duplicate content or any other kind of red flags for Google? I know that the more the page changes the better, but if it's all the same content that is being moved up and down constantly, could Google think we're pulling some kind of "making it look like we have new content" scheme and ding us for these pages? If so, what would anyone recommend we do? Let's take an example of a list of companies with bad customer service. We let the internet vote them up and down all the time, the order changes depending on the votes in real time. Is that page doomed, or does Google see it and love it?
Web Design | | BG19850 -
Custom URL's with Bigcommerce Issue (Is it worth it?)
We're building out a store in Bigcommerce, who for all intensive purposes is perfect for SEO besides the fact that you can not change the URL's to be custom. My question is, does this kill the SEO value of bigcommerce, despite everything else being great? So for example the URL's for a category page would be something like this www.mysite.com/categories/keyword and the product URL's are pulled in by product name, so product URL's could be something like www.mysite.com/products/Product-Description-Long-223.html (notice the words will be capitalized and their is no way to remove the trailing .html) I could go with Interspire (the liscenced version of Bigcommerce) or Magento so I can custom edit this stuff. But then its a lot more work for my employee's on the buildout.
Web Design | | iAnalyst.com0