I am not singling MP3.com out for any particular reason. Many sites do it, even my own Emo Movies does it. But I just thought I would make a point about it. Make URL’s longer and adding in random code just to make sure you have your search engine positioning and keywords in there. Adding in that extra folder with a name on, changing your URL’s to form words, etc.
Is it right? The first answer you jump to is of course no. You are artifically inflating your search engine positioning with keywords. Although if you think about it, you are really just appropriatly naming your pages. It is only when people who abuse the system by putting too many keywords or unrelated keywords into the URLs that it really becomes wrong. Anyway, on to demonstraighting my point.
Take a look at these two URLs:
http://www.mp3.com/Avril-Lavigne/artists/485355/summary.html
http://www.mp3.com/Dire-Staits/artists/485355/summary.html
The top one is the standard link you are given when you click on or search for Avril. The second is however has been modified to replace Avril’s name with Dire Straits. What’s the difference in the page? Nothing. Because the artist is selected from the database based on the big number string after /artists/. The words at the start make no difference, they are just there for search engine positioning. Which is why the second link is also Avril’s page.
Although I am seeming critical, this is a valid thing to do make though. For instance on Emo Movies, the movie is also selected via an ID number. But how would people know what movie it is? They wouldn’t without the extra, irrevelant folder after it, which tells the user what movie it is. Such as /10/coyote-ugly/.
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This entry was posted on Sunday, August 22nd, 2004 at 8:35 am and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.