Dynamic vs. Static Urls and Using mod_rewrite for php

[solarchris]

Webmasters,

I currently have my urls set as dynamic.
Product urls are as follows:

mysite.com?prod=27000010CF+FREZ

The above product is a freezer

Category urls are as follows:

mysite.com?cat=247

247 is the category of the freezer

I have the titles above these urls with product names included.
Would this be considered as optimized for SEO or do I need to do mod_rewrite. I currently use ecommercetemplates.com php with includes admin system and I have heard it is difficult to use with mod_rewrite. My developer says that dynamic urls are just as effective. However, seeing as how the product url above does not have a product name in the url itself wouldn't that make it less effective than a static url. As opposed to using mod_rewrite couldn't I just simply change my product ids to being product names or would this cause a problem with duplicate content?

Thanks very much,

Chris

[Colin-uk]

for my sites i usually use something like index.php?page=pagename

I plan to eventually use a mod rewrite to make them look like site.com/page/pagename

I think i read somewhere that if you have a ? (question mark) in your url, google doesnt index anything past that, im not sure how much truth there is in that, i cant remember where i heard it

but i think "clean" urls look nicer anyway.

also i think putting a name or description in the url ould be a lot better than a number, you'd get more indexed results in search engines, i think, but im no expert so dont quote me on that

[Kasparoff]

Originally Posted by Colin-uk

I think i read somewhere that if you have a ? (question mark) in your url, google doesnt index anything past that, im not sure how much truth there is in that, i cant remember where i heard it

Yes, I understand your concern. Well, I had the same problem in 2003. Now, it seems that Google accepts any type of URL as a reference, even with ? mark in it. So, don't hesitate to keep using it.

[solidghost]

There is no problem with indexing I believe.
But I think they will be hesitant to index your site if it has session ids because they are afraid that the link will be dead the next time someone clicks on it.

[Johan007]

Solarchris did not trust my reply at the other forum