Apache's mod_rewrite and short URLs (General)
Dear Don!
Thanks Helmut for the post.
You are welcome.
I guess that was a poor example I used wasn't it?
No, it was wonderful...
Do you think that URL's like (example):
www.example.com/all-about-mercedes-automobiles.htm
could ever be implemented in future plans for MLF? Do you think that would help with SEF?
I don't think it will be worth the effort. It would mean:
- a quite massive change in the code, and
- fiddling around with Apache's
mod_rewrite
module (being not that user-friendly) - which every Admin would have to do differently based on his/her file structure.
Have a look at these two threads from the phpBB-Communtity and an Able2Know-Board.
Even with short URLs the best you may get is something like
www.example.com/Cat-X-Thrd-Y-Pst-Z.htm
A blown up mlf plus any sophisticiated RewriteRule
in .htaccess
simply don't 'know' that this particular post deals with 'all-about-mercedes-automobiles' (the subject line will no be of any help either).
Since Google has no problem in indexing all posts - if you are avoiding double content - I would suggest to leave it just the simple way. People on the net are used to copy-paste long URLs.
Another problem would appear if you are submitting a sitemap to Google or Yahoo (what I did a couple of months ago). If more than about 5 Rewrite-Rules are to be followed in .htaccess
, at least Google issues a Warning (whatever that means). So that's maybe another reason not to opt for short URLs.
--
Cheers,
Alfie (Helmut Schütz)
BEBA-Forum (v1.8β)