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It's Time for Twitter to Take URL Structure Seriously
September 02, 2009
About three months ago, I mentioned in a ClickZ article that Twitter should consider tightening up its structure to avoid some of the duplication it's creating in its URLs.
Back then, for example, Twitter had about 1.4 million URLs indexed on its secure (HTTPS) server. Today, that number has tripled to about 3.5 million. That latter number is just a shadow of the total number of URLs indexed that aren't on the HTTPS protocol, which is about 314 million.
Cap style -- the way URLs appear in your browser (upper or lowercase) -- is just as bad a problem. This link shows the tip of the duplication iceberg using @CNNbrk as an example. A smart server issues URLs in only one cap style and accepts only those same URLs, while redirecting any variations that get requested.
The following image, taken from that link, shows six different cap styles for the single account:
And don't forget the mobile site, m.twitter.com, which gets indexed right alongside the full-bodied version.
About the only canonicalization that Twitter is getting right is the www/non-www issue. Other than that, chaos rules.
The index size wars are over. Lean is the new fat. It's time for Twitter to make a few small tweaks and consolidate some of its splintered authority. All they need to do is agree on a case and protocol style, then either redirect non-conformers or issue canonical tags, and the problem will dry up relatively painlessly.
I also need to acknowledge the work of my industry colleague Edward Lewis, a vocal proponent of what he calls proper "Pascal casing." I make this acknowledgment despite the fact that he didn't appreciate my joke about the way he's "Blaising a trail" for proper Pascal case.
All posts by Erik Dafforn
posted by Erik Dafforn at September 2, 2009 08:00 AM
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Comments
Wow! Really a great information.Nice post.Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: SeoNext at September 4, 2009 04:53 AM
Wow! Really a great information.Nice post.Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: SeoNext at September 4, 2009 04:54 AM
"Blaising a trail" HAHA! That was very clever sir. I agree with your sentiments regarding twitter, this lack of URL uniformity is, at the very least, offensive to the OCD part of me.
I imagine they haven't fixed it as of yet because it makes people look for posts on twitter, not some external engine.
Posted by: David Cato at September 10, 2009 06:59 PM
Thanks for the insight, I had never thought about capitalization being a factor in SEO.
Posted by: Montana Flynn at September 21, 2009 10:16 PM
Thanks for the read.
I'm all for defining a convention on this sort, I do much prefer order over chaos.
Posted by: David Smythe - Firstfoun at October 20, 2009 10:42 AM
Cool! i had learned about this blog...i get some information and it will be a big help for us...thanks and keep it up.
Posted by: seo philippines at November 10, 2009 07:15 AM