DivaVocals:
So what do you suggest to folks who want/need nicer looking URLS for say.. marketing materials.. those long URLS don't really work on marketing and sales materials.. Because for my customers who use these tools, THAT's what they are after..
That's a valid point. Rendering a product-specific URL in a printed document might have an advantage if the URL is more "understandable" to a human. Interestingly, back in 2008 we produced a printed catalogue for a company selling educational resources and teaching aids. In this catalogue, we referenced the URL for every product as its standard dynamic URL.
We had user tracking module installed on the webshop, and within days of the printed catalogue reaching the 35,000 UK schools to which it was sent, we saw many (scores, in fact) visitors come into the site via the product-specific url referenced in the printed catalogue.
At the time, we had considered the "value" of static URL's, but came to the conclusion that either way, the customer would still have to READ (visually absorb) the URL before typing it into a browser, and it actually made no difference if the URL was in a dynamic format or static format. They would just READ what was printed in the catalogue, and type that into the browser address bar.
We did a focus group on the usage of the catalogue a few weeks before printing it. Afterall, printing a 300-page catalogue and mailing it to nearly 40,000 people was going to cost us about £500,000 - so we needed to make sure people could use it effectively.
While the people in the focus group were not specifically asked if they found the URL confusing (we did not think it mattered much), their collective report on the catalogue was very positive and on the question: "Were you easily able to find the product on the website?" the resounding answer was "Yes".
The focus group result ALSO showed that most people would simply navigate to the site's home page and use the SEARCH function to find the product - mainly because they were after SEVERAL items - not just one, and once inside the site, the search feature would be used to return a result on the Product Code (Model) in more than 75% of cases, and the Product Title was used in about 20% of cases - with more "generic" searches used in the remaining 5% of cases.
As a result of this focus group's input, the PRODUCT CODE was made more prominent in the catalogue, with advice on how to use the site's search feature.
The dynamic URL was still referenced - and as indicated, was used MANY times to reach the product.
Over 700,000 UK teachers have access to this catalogue - and to date no complaints have ever been received about "confusing" web links.
The site attracts about 4,500 teachers a day, and generates about 250 - 500 orders a day (more at peak purchase times in the academic year).
DivaVocals:
No offense, but the anti-SEO mod PSA's you post in these various support threads (except t"he esteemed Ceon's URI Mapping") would tend to indicate otherwise.. :D
I don't actually care if people use SEO URL modules or not. All I am indicating is that they are not necessary, and (in many cases) do more harm than good. MOST people apply them because they have a (desperate) hope that they are going to be advantageous for SEO... and THIS is the myth that needs addressing. In Zencart's case they do nothing for "SEO", and (judging by the length of this thread) cause big problems...
If people want to use them, that's absolutely fine.
We have strong evidence that they do nothing advantageous - even when referencing URL's in printed marketing materials.
