[Mike]

Ok, so underscores vs dashes aside, what do the people think is a best practice for urls.

On my site I need to ditch my urls including the variables, like

/directory-cat.cfm?id=17

now then, there seem to me to be a number of options here:

for example

organicdirectory/thecatname/17
17/organicdirectory/thecatname
organicdirectory-thecatname-17
17-organicdirectory-thecatname
17-organicdirectory-thecatname.html

etc etc

what are peoples thoughts, anything i have missed, should do shouldnt do?

thanks all

[RedEvo]

I'd lose the number part if possible.

d

[Mike]

hmm, not sure how i can do that with a dynamic url, without hard coding it

[KingPin]

If you can get rid of the numbers then that would be good but if not I would personally go with....

17/organicdirectory/thecatname

KP

[RedEvo]

Originally Posted by Mike

hmm, not sure how i can do that with a dynamic url, without hard coding it

Most modern CMS's can create human readable URL's without ID numbers. Do some digging.

d

[Mike]

ok, well the cms is my own atm, so ill look at the way to achieve this.

So is it still worth putting the .thml on the end? or leave it like oits a folder

[KingPin]

I think it's all down to personal preference Mike.

It's not needed to add an extension such as .html, .php or .asp as the outcome will just be the same.

KP

[Cryxellis]

I think this one is good organicdirectory-thecatname-1, number is fine
with me, even it is not necessary. When I was making a new blog I
always used the dash sign. I just like putting it instead of slash.

[openmind]

If its a category make it into a folder.

The only way I can think of the top of my head to lose the number is to make the folder name a reference in the DB.

So you would have /my-directory/ stored in the categories table and then use a rewrite rule to use the my-directory part as a look up for the category ID.