Will a "blog=example "parameter at the end of my URLs affect google's crawling them?
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For example, I'm wondering if www.example.com/blog/blog-post is better than www.example.com/blog/blog-post?blog=example?
I'm currently using the www.example.com/blog/blog-post?blog=example structure as our canonical page for content.
I'm also wondering, if the parameter doesn't affect crawling, if it would hurt rankings in any way.
Thanks!
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Thank you Ryan! Sounds like I should be using the cleaner format.
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Google is capable of crawling almost any URL. I am certain the URL would be crawled in either format.
With respect to rankings, a cleaner URL would be preferred. URLs are a ranking factor, but not a big one. Even so, you want to remove any unnecessary terms from the URL, and especially repeated terms.
Additionally, cleaner URLs are more readable by people so will likely experience better Click Through Rates. While not a ranking factor, it does directly affect your traffic.
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