The Importance of "Clean" URLs: Eliminating Dangerous URLs

Isn't it frustrating when you copy and paste a URL and even though you started out with a simple one to remember, it switches to a nightmare of symbols and letters to try to direct you to the exact page?

The problem is, it turns out to not be the page you wanted, or you get an error message that says the page is unavailable. The person who designed the page has left it with the potential for broken links or at least several redirects. The reason that people searching for a page, copying and pasting an URL and then getting an error message is that the person writing the page URL didn't go back and clean it up. By leaving it up to the computer to store it as by default, a messy or sometimes called dirty URL that is littered with punctuation and identifiers that are problematic can keep more people away from your web page even when they were trying to get there in the first place. It's hard enough to try to get people to your web page. But, then for them to be turned away because of an error message due to a messy URL is a disaster for getting traffic to your web page.

Did you know that search engines actually prefer a clean URL? Have you ever wondered how some pages get top priority on search engines? One of the most common reasons is that the URL is clean and therefore the search engine puts it before the other messy ones. Google has figured it out. But many others don't know about cleaning up URL's yet. Alert! Did you know that when hackers look at an URL that was set by default, it has all the footprint clues of how the page is written? Therefore, a hacker can follow the clues and write a page to copy your page. It is less secure and can be used for a scam or some other form of exploit that could hurt your website or business. To solve these problems of making clean URL's most have found that using mod_rewrite to clean it up often helps. Sometimes you may have to consult your webmaster for their help. Or you can look at the tutorial for the web design program you are using. But with some effort you can clean up your URL and solve the problems of losing traffic to your web page or having a hacker steal the look of your page and create a scam with it. Don't forget to reboot!