Is it safe to remove IDs from PrestaShop URLs ?

[ErtyUI]

I would like to solve this dilemma once and for all:

Is it safe to remove IDs from a Prestashop URLs?

We have very good online store with a lot of traffic.

Age: 5 years +

Online store has URLs without IDs. It works great, without any errors!

However, we are currently in the phase of building a new online store with an emphasis on SEO, and the developer said that he does not recommend remove IDs and that IDs MUST BE in the URL. He also said that the core of PrestaShop MUST NOT be changed.

I've read a lot of topics about this this week, most of them are old. Opinions are divided.. Some people support it, others don't. Is this just a fight between SEOs and DEVs? 🙂

In principle, I don't panic about having IDs in the URLs. The only problem is that we are extremely strong in SEO and I am afraid that this will spoil our positions (despite redirects).

Now I would like to ask you - only those of you who really know something about it - What do you think about removing IDs in URLs and WHY?

Please don't give dry answers.. I want reasons! 🙂

Best regards!

[ecommerce16]

With the id in the url the url is more specific, so in that case i should recommend to use them. However, when your old store doesnt use them you should realize that when you build a new store with id in the url, and you dont have set correct the old url to the new url in your new store, you will regret it! I understand your developer, if possible dont change the core, but sometimes you need something in your shop what needs some changes, but minimize it! Reason i guess is that its harder to upgrade your store when things are changed in core. Better is to do this with overrides. So i agree with your developer, but also warn you to set your 301 diversions correctly to the new urls.

Urls without id look nicer, but you will never make a duplicate url with the id in the url.

[Nickz]

2 hours ago, ErtyUI said:

We have very good online store with a lot of traffic.

don't change a running system.

In any case you need to copy all URLS and redo them in prestashop or any other shop you choose.
htaccess will be your friend to redirect all the dead URLS.

Edited August 5, 2022 by Nickz (see edit history)

[ErtyUI]

ecommerce16 and Nickz, thank you for your answer!

Ok, now I am looking two SEO modules:

1. Ets-Soft: SEO Audit - Best SEO practices 2022 - Incredibly good Module - Click

In overview it says that:

"Unlike other SEO URL modules that overrides all website’s controllers to remove IDs that may cause conflicts with custom modules and not stable, SEO Audit comes with less overrides (only override main dispatcher file) and URL re-matching algorithm to make sure the module is stable and compatible with any other custom modules or custom URLs on your store."

Is this module safer to use among other "Remove IDs" modules?

2. Ether Création: SmartKeyword SEO - Search Engine Optimization 5* Module - Click

This module tell you just to relocate IDs from beginning to end.

What do you think is better to choose? 

Edited August 6, 2022 by ErtyUI
grammer error (see edit history)

[ErtyUI]

Is it safe to remove IDs from PrestaShop URLs ?

I just wanted to close the thread.. Otherwise, I was hoping for a little more cooperation, but anyway. After two replies here and a lot of replies in Facebook groups, I've decided to leave the IDs in the URLs. In this way, I do not want to interfere in the core of PrestaShop. Not only that.. The modules will be more compatible, I will update PrestaShop more easily.

How SEO experts (yes, the real one) view PrestaShop URLs?

In short: PrestaShop URLs are far from the best & most optimal. The problem is that URLs are not fixed:

www. example .com / 101-category (category page)

www. example. com / category / 491-product-name (product page)

If you look more closely, the ID in the category name disappears

BUT: Google is smart. If you have well-set crumbs and menu navigation, Google will quickly understand that "101-category" and "category"  is the same thing.

CONCLUSION: I really dug deep into PrestaShop IDs, whether to keep them or delete them. Most PrestaShop developers recommend leaving them alone! Despite the fact that PrestaShop URLs are not the best for SEO, this is only a small factor in the rankings, but if you have well-made breadcrumbs and menu navigations, then Google will quickly know about these URLs. (Amazon, Netflix, IDBM,... have much worse URLs and rank great)

So.. I will leave the IDs in the store and make redirects from the current pages. However, if a new store is being built, IDs should not be an issue at all.

I sincerely hope that this will help someone from doing the research that I had to do myself.

Best regards!

[webprog]

On 8/9/2022 at 10:08 AM, ErtyUI said:

www. example .com / 101-category (category page)

www. example. com / category / 491-product-name (product page)

Yes, this scheme was transfered from prestashop 1.6.x.

But, the scheme for products with attributes was changed: for example:

women/2-11-brown-bear-printed-sweater.html#/3-size-l

women/2-10-brown-bear-printed-sweater.html#/2-size-m

women/2-9-brown-bear-printed-sweater.html#/1-size-s

And these urls for one product.

[Presta2020]

You can remove the IDs and temporarily redirect the old URLs to the new ones until Google indexes them.
If the site is old, the update will be done quite quickly.
For a while, both URLs indexed on google are displayed until I delete the old ones.