ASP.NET MVC - Passing redundant arguments to actions

Question

This question may seem a little bit stackoverflow-implementation specific, but I have seen a similar pattern on other websites that are using REST-friendly URL rewriting as well.

For example, a link to a particular question looks like this: ASP.NET MVC - Passing redundant arguments to actions

1388703 apparently being some kind of unique ID and the rest being the Title of the question.

The ID itself should be enough, so what may be the advantage of putting the question title (in this particular case, one can see that stackoverflow uses this almost everywhere, e.g. for badges, user profiles etc.) as second parameter?

When you remove the last part of the URL, the same page is displayed, which is expected. But when you change the last part to any other string, the same result is still displayed.

Is this only a cosmetic issue, allowing easier management of links (e.g. when storing bookmarks?) or does it have any other advantages?

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:01:22Z

5

It's for search engine optimization.

The link ASP.NET MVC - Passing redundant arguments to actions doesn't mean much to a search engine but ASP.NET MVC - Passing redundant arguments to actions allows a search engine to match the words "asp net mvc" etc which they will normally give more weight to as it's in the URL.

It's also more user friendly as it gives more meaning to the content of the page form the URL.

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:01

CommunityBot

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answered Sep 7, 2009 at 10:50

David Glenn

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Robban · Accepted Answer · 2009-09-07 10:49:08Z

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It is cosmetic and it's also better search engine optimization to keep easily readable names in the url as that will make the search engines find it easier.

answered Sep 7, 2009 at 10:49

Robban

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ilivewithian · Accepted Answer · 2009-09-07 10:49:41Z

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The biggest advantage that the extra text has is for SEO. The extra text in the link gives google a lot more help understanding what's in the page.

answered Sep 7, 2009 at 10:49

ilivewithian

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Matthew Groves · Accepted Answer · 2009-09-08 21:15:41Z

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I'd also mention that if a title is changed (i.e. for spelling, etc), the ID number still works.

answered Sep 8, 2009 at 21:15

Matthew Groves

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