Broadvision URLs

[Adam C]

I've been speaking to a client who is using Broadvision <snip>, with typical URLs like this:

http://www.site.com/cgi-bin/site/site/prod/listing.jsp?BV_SessionID=HHHH2142807456.1106656259 HHHH&
BV_EngineID=cccdadddjjejhdfcefecfngdfhidgjh.0&channelId=-8383&_strCatPathName=/widgets/red,blue+and+green&monkey=true&
badger=06006113&squirrel=yesplease

It has been talked about that Broadvision can be made search engine friendly, but has anyone had any experience of this or have any info that they can share?

[Mikkel deMib Svendsen]

There have alwasy been exceptional probems with Broadvision that have been almost impossible to solve. However, recently they released a whitepaper that descripe a solution similar to what you get with URL-rewrite filtering, so you can get "clean" URLs

You will have to check with your Broadvision rep to find out how to get the whitepaper.

[seobrien]

We're implementing URL rewrites that append the mess to a structured format:
www.site.com/category/product.html

The jury is out on parameter based URLs, some suggest Google will properly index 2-3 parameters, I say just get it fixed since broadvision always ends up making more than just 2-3.
Here's a good place to start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mod_rewrite

The problem that still exists though is URL consistency. Broadvision is a content management system so it makes managing content easy by organizing it. Your URL structure is based on that organization so if it ever changes (category names change, your web folks want to reorganize), all the URLs change.
www.site.com/category/product.html
become
www.site.com/category2/product.html

This is just as bad and now search engines are sending traffic to a broken page.
If anyone knows of a way to script 301 redirects to automatically fill in OR is familiar with Broadvision and has a solution.... the table is open: