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I'm coding a website and I want to increase its SEO. I was wondering how the page rank was dealing with session-based url. I have a session variable "town" which construct all URLs of the website (basically example.com/TOWN). The structure of the website looks like this : 

-town 1(default)
    - category a
    - category b
-town 2 (not default)
    - category a (same as the town 1 one but different content)
    - category b

I've noticed that all urls based on other towns than the default one were not indexed (I made a page "sitemap" with all available urls to force googlebot to follow links and index the pages). Are these urls as bad for linkjuice as indexes ? I notices that all urls based on other town that the default one has lower rank in Google index.

If it is bad for the PR, is there a better way to construct url based on a town than the session ? (I want the user to chose a town if the default one doesn't satisfy him, but when he or she changes town, the website keeps that parameter for the rest of his visit).

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  • As someone who has used parameters fr a long time, I recommend that you avoid it as much as possible. Technically, it works fine, however, it does create some complications when changes are made. I prefer that a path structure such as /town/name/category/ allow for more flexibility. As far as indexing, sitemaps will not force anything. It may be that your pages are not unique enough to be indexed. Another consideration is the link profile to your site. Few links will mean less pages indexed. If your site is new, it will just plain take a while, years possibly. Links are important these says.
    – closetnoc
    Jan 16, 2017 at 15:52
  • Thanks, actually, my urls already are /town/category, but the "town" of the url is determined by the session, I'd like to have the same pages, but different content when you choose another town. Instead of sessions, what should I use ? I am french, so not very used to english terms, when I said "sitemap", I was not talking about the xml file but a page where all links are written (same word in french). My site is already old and I try for so long to increase its ranking :/ By parameter i meant "something the user choose and is kept by the website", not the url paramter with "?parameter="
    – Amanite Laurine
    Jan 16, 2017 at 17:09

1 Answer 1

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Googlebot does not use cookies and therefore does not use sessions. As a result, Google never sees the URLs for each town.

You are on the right path creating a sitemap. However, putting URLs into a sitemap is not sufficient to get them crawled and indexed. See The Sitemap Paradox.

You will need to find some way of linking to the town URLs from other pages on your site that Googlebot already accesses. You should then also place links on each town page to some other town pages.

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