Looking around, most sites (eg. Amazon) encode the parameters of searches into query string. This means that search engines cannot index these queries.Why don't such sites use URLs rather than query strings to store search parameters, as this would allow google to index searches?Search using a query string:example.com/search?author=john+smith&year=2007&title=do+dogs+have+lipsSearch using a URL:example.com/search/author/john_smith/year/2007/title/do_dogs_have_lipsThis URL would then point to a unique page, containing the results of this search. If a strict order of parameters was observed (eg. author always comes first if used, year always comes next if used etc.) This would seem like a great solution.What am I missing?
Making Search Queries Indexable
google;search engines;url;search;query string
Google doesn't want to index search results.  Matt Cutts said so: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/search-results-in-search-results/   Google now penalizes sites that try that.   Google considers search pages to be very low quality landing pages.  Why should a user click off a page of search results, only to land on another?If you think you can target these terms with good content, it would be better to build great pages that can satisfy the user.  That is more than a list of links, you need content, product info, ability to buy and compare, etc.