Ok I just want to know which of these URL's (created using a .htaccess file) is better for SEO ?
Example 1: http://www.foo.com/bar.php?story=1
Example 2: http://www.foo.com/bar/1
Example 3: http://www.foo.com/bar/1/
Example 4: http://www.foo.com/bar/1.html
Example 5: http://www.foo.com/bar/1/index.html
??
.htaccess and SEO question.
Moderator: General Moderators
what you are actually refering to is the use of mod_rewrite and not .htaccess specifically.
I've always been told that some spiders ignore querystrings because the idea is that a page is a page, whilst querystrings can and often are used to manipulate the data on said page, whilst it is still the same page.
One note: Google definitely do ignore the querystring var "id="
On the flip side of the argument, mod_rewrite also fools spiders into thinking your site has many many more pages to it than it actually might have.
http://www.example.com/index/foo/bar
and
http://www.example.com/index/bar/foo
are the same page with 2 vars, but to a spider they will appear as two different pages.
I've always been told that some spiders ignore querystrings because the idea is that a page is a page, whilst querystrings can and often are used to manipulate the data on said page, whilst it is still the same page.
One note: Google definitely do ignore the querystring var "id="
On the flip side of the argument, mod_rewrite also fools spiders into thinking your site has many many more pages to it than it actually might have.
http://www.example.com/index/foo/bar
and
http://www.example.com/index/bar/foo
are the same page with 2 vars, but to a spider they will appear as two different pages.