I am implementing cs-cart for a web site. Which one is better for SEO if possible with a reason or reference. Site sells books stamps cds etc.
www.domain.com/book/Java.html (or) www.domain.com/book/programming/Java.html
or
www.domain.com/Java.html
Some says short URLs are good. But isnt it good that stating which category the product it is in. Thanks
You can go for both, via canonical URLs. For example, in the <head> of both /Java.html and /book/Java.html:
<link rel="canonical" href="/book/programming/Java.html" />
With that, Googlebot (and Yahoo/MS' spiders) will see the current page as a duplicate of the canonical link and ignore it, without the usual demerits that come with dupe content.
Long URLs are good for being descriptive, clear, & searchable, while short URLs are nice for people to send around to friends and whatever social network du jour - chances are you want both.
Maintaining the different URLs & dupes will add some server work though. If it's too much effort, I'd go with the long form for the users' sake & search-ability. "java.html" could just be some random page about coffee, it needs context.