I am implementing cs-cart for a web site. Which one is better for SEO if possible with a reason or reference. Site sells books stamps cds etc.
www.domain.com/book/Java.html (or) www.domain.com/book/programming/Java.html
or
www.domain.com/Java.html
Some says short URLs are good. But isnt it good that stating which category the product it is in. Thanks
What if it fits into two categories? That would be the case where I say that it's better to go with a short URL because you don't want duplicate content.
Try to get the right size for the content of the site. For example the word "book" is redundant in a URL of a bookshop.
You can go for both, via canonical URLs. For example, in the <head> of both /Java.html and /book/Java.html:
<link rel="canonical" href="/book/programming/Java.html" />
With that, Googlebot (and Yahoo/MS' spiders) will see the current page as a duplicate of the canonical link and ignore it, without the usual demerits that come with dupe content.
Long URLs are good for being descriptive, clear, & searchable, while short URLs are nice for people to send around to friends and whatever social network du jour - chances are you want both.
Maintaining the different URLs & dupes will add some server work though. If it's too much effort, I'd go with the long form for the users' sake & search-ability. "java.html" could just be some random page about coffee, it needs context.