Let say I want to refer to a restaurant page, I could use one of those 2 URLs for example:
1- /restaurants/123
2- /restaurants/Pizzeria-Mamma
URL 1 has the advantage to be a quick match because of the ID but it is not as descriptive as URL 2.
Does URL matter to search engines? I read somewhere that it is good to put the keywords in the URL too so URL 2 would be the way to go. Can someone confirm or deny ?
Regards,
Ultimately, search engine algorithms are designed to reward good usability (although obviously in practice that is not always the case). As a user, it would semantically make more sense to have the pizzeria name in the url, and you have the added advantage of it being easier to remember. Whilst kbrimington's comment is correct that page content it probably more important, SEOMoz, a search engine algorithm authority, puts keyword in the url at somewhere between the 9th and 11th most important ranking factor depending on where it appears in the url
http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#ranking-factors
At number 5 in the ranking factors, however, is anchor text; it's only an opinion, but I'm inclined to say that having the word "pizzeria" in the url is more likely to encourage people to put "pizzeria" in the anchor text when they link to your site.