Hi, I am launching a new site and want to get this right, so any advice would be great. does it matter or help if a keyword is repeated in the longstring URL? e.g. abcwidgets.com/widgets/bluewidgets does it help if the words are in the same order as the searched term? Thanks, Steve
Absolutely ! This is the best way to optimize keywords in search engines. Always try to create folder with related keywords name as you are showing in your question.
Thanks for the detailed and insightful opinion seomanager. Does anyone who is not just trying to increase their post count, so they can add a sig link have any advice to the actual questions I asked?
Thanks for the detailed and insightful opinion seomanager. Does anyone who is not just trying to increase their post count, so they can add a sig link, have any advice to the actual questions I asked?
Keywords in URL gives a natural boost to ranking for that particular keyword. Using keywords in URL as mentioned by you will be beneficial for your pages.
Yes, it does. Especially if the keyword is well targeted to the content that you are writing about on the page. Just make sure that you don't try to make the url too long
No offence guys, but it seems that nobody has actually read the question (sorry to sound like a school teacher) What I am asking about is the frequency of the words in a longtail url and the order of the words.
It is important to use keyword rich URLs. I wouldn't go so far as to say, "This is the best way to optimize keywords in search engines." since it's a very minor factor in Google's ranking algorithm. Having the keyword in your <title>, <h1>, <h2>s, etc. will carry far more weight than having them in your URL. Also, having them in the domain name likely carries far more weight than having them in the folder or page names. Repeating it in the URL likely does help as I'm guessing they are looking at keyword density within the URL as they do within the content, <title>, <h1>, etc... but it starts to look spammy after the 2nd or 3rd time so don't over do it. Since keyword rich URLs have a very minor impact on rankings, having a word there a 2nd or 3rd time is not likely to make a noticeable difference. Hell, I honestly doubt you'd see a very noticeable difference in the rankings of any page by ONLY changing the URL from a non-keyword rich to keyword rich URL. Where possible, I do try to include the singular and plural in URLs... So for instance, if I had a site about online loans I might have something like: http://www.example.com/mortgages/mortgage-calculators/home-affordability-calculator.aspx Notice how the URL has both the singular and plural version of mortgage as well as the singular and plural version of calculator. This way I get credit for the keywords in the URL regardless of whether they search for the singular or plural.
I'm pretty much in agreement with canonical. I would stress also, the usability factor as the example you gave is somewhat of a bread-crumb trail for your users as well. There are also those who would subscribe to the idea that order does matter, but it is a smaller aspect. I do note that your post title is folder structure, so if I could add a note that you want to have your most important folders closest to the root in regards to search engines and indexing. Does that help?
I think that repeating keywords in URL or in page content will only help when it is done for the benefits of the site users. If you are doing this only to gain ranking, then I think it will not help much. If it use to help in SEO, then people will start to put many many keywords in URLs
Including keywords into url is no doubt as a way to optimize your webpage for your keyword. But if the keyword being repeated more than 2 times in url, I afraid google will flag your page as keyword stuffing.
Thanks for the replies. I hadn't thought of the plural(s) aspect. I do try to make everything focussed for the users, but theres no harm in getting these things right from an SEO perspective from the outset either
I don't do that as it looks spammy. Just include the plural forms as Google will always pick up both form easily.
you may use your main keywords in naming your folders but just limit the usage so it doesn't look keyword stuffing search engine robots easily noticed that, you can replace it with your minor or even related to your main keywords.
no need to focus on plurals aspect google is smart enough to pick it up..any ways it looks spammy... Plus I dnt agree, "keyword rich URLs have a very minor impact on rankings, having a word there a 2nd or 3rd time is not likely to make a noticeable difference"...they hav huge importance as a normal backlink automatically works as a backlink with keyword rich anchor text.
/shrug I've heard Matt Cutts say in person on numerous occasions that keyword rich URLs carry very little weight in the Google ranking algorithm. He said a LOT more gains can be made by optimizing <title>, <h1>, content of the page, link text used to link to the page, etc. He called keyword rich URLs an "SEO fine tuning technique" that should only really be worried about after all of the other more important optimizations have been made. And as far as plurals, I think you guys are wrong.. Google DOES see the singular and plural as different (yet related) keywords and ranks each of them separately. Go search for "mortgage loan" in one browser and "mortgage loans" in another browser... completely different results. Yes if you are trying to rank for the plural "loans", having the singular "loan" in the URL, <title>, <h1>, content, link text of incoming links, etc. will help you rank for the plural "loans"... but not nearly as much as having the plural "loans"... and visa versa if you're trying to rank for the singular.
Also might want to consider links on the actual page itself. Optimizing your front page to link effectively to the rest of your website while targeting keywords for the links also helps as well. As far as keywords in the url, try not to be too spammy when doing it. Last thing you'd want is for things to go South because you overused a particular keyword. Also, I have to agree about the differentiation between singular and plural being different. When using Google's keyword tool, it'll differentiate between the number of searches for each one, even considering that they are related key terms.