The importance of a semantic URL - Robert’s talk

What is a semantic URL?

Semantic URLs, also known as Friendly URLs, are made up of logical parts, therefore showing the actual name of the specific web page you’re watching, while at the same time displaying where it belongs in the web site hierarchy. Let me give you some examples:

Bad URLs

• http://www.example.com/?id=547
• http://www.example.com/aspx?id=547&product=785
• http://www.travel-example.com/?continent=3&country=15&city=54

Good URLs, made from the samples above

The bad examples above can actually mean something like this in reality:

• http://www.example.com/contact
• http://www.example.com/products/screwdriver
• http://www.travel-example.com/europe/sweden/stockholm

See just how much better it gets? Another thing I dislike is when file extensions, like .php or .aspx, are part of the URL. What’s ridiculous about that, too, is that isn’t the content of the PHP or ASP.NET file that is presented, its the content that it generated that is shown to the end user. I’m all against the usage of any file extension in the URL, but the only one that would make sense at least some sense is .html, because that is what is served to the web browser.

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