Question

I am using UrlReqritingNet to include url routing in my asp.net 2.0 application.

I want to change

http://mysite.com/book/detail.aspx?id=4

to this:

http://mysite.com/book/a-tale-of-two-cities

The book is stored in a database, 4 being the the unique primary key of the book.

However using this url I am forced to do a database lookup using the book’s name rather than the id. I’d much prefer to use the unique id instead.

The obvious solution is:

http://mysite.com/book/4

or

http://mysite.com/book/a-tale-of-two-cities?id=4

Taking SEO in to consideration, are either of those urls ideal?

Thanks

Answer 1

Why not do it exactly as StackOverflow does on this very page?

http://mysite.com/book/4/a-tale-of-two-cities?id=4

Put the ID in the URL before the slug. That way if the slug is ever cut off you still have everything you need to retrieve that page.