Proof that url with keywords are better than url with post id?

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by timebinder, Jul 8, 2011.

  1. #1
    A couple years back I read Nathan Anderson explain that urls with post id would rank as well or better than urls that actually contained the title tag within the pages url.

    I think he said the reason is that they are shorter, and to avoid keyword stuffing of urls, google would ignore them in terms of rank value.

    Any views based on evidential experience?
     
    timebinder, Jul 8, 2011 IP
  2. Richie_Ni

    Richie_Ni Illustrious Member

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    #2
    It's no doubt that having keywords in your url helps.
     
    Richie_Ni, Jul 8, 2011 IP
  3. timebinder

    timebinder Peon

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    #3
    I am looking for actual evidence, not faith.
     
    timebinder, Jul 8, 2011 IP
  4. komputertips

    komputertips Peon

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    #4
    I think and the fact is post title with keyword better than post ID....you can search in google whatever you need to know, and look at the url!
     
    komputertips, Jul 8, 2011 IP
  5. timebinder

    timebinder Peon

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    #5
    that the majority of people use post title in the url means that any search in google will show most results with post title in url. That does not mean it is ranked higher than post id.

    Again, anyone with actual evidence? Split tests or so?

    Just been curious for a while as I had post-id and changed to post-title but not yet seeing any change.
     
    timebinder, Jul 8, 2011 IP
  6. aff2k

    aff2k Peon

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    #6
    Very difficult to provide split tests on this. Its not a big ranking factor. Although second or third tier engines might favor keywords in url as opposed to post id. Again I do not have any actual evidence to prove this. just my 2 cents.
     
    aff2k, Jul 9, 2011 IP
  7. buy_and_sell

    buy_and_sell Peon

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    #7
    I agree....
     
    buy_and_sell, Jul 9, 2011 IP
  8. kittyluver

    kittyluver Notable Member

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    #8
    Keywords URL are always liked by GOOGLE in spite of Google panda.
     
    kittyluver, Jul 9, 2011 IP
  9. buy_and_sell

    buy_and_sell Peon

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    #9
    Yep Keywords URL are always liked by GOOGLE
     
    buy_and_sell, Jul 9, 2011 IP
  10. rohansyco

    rohansyco Member

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    #10
    keyword in the domain always hepls a lot with the search engine optimization....
     
    rohansyco, Jul 9, 2011 IP
  11. directfuture

    directfuture Active Member

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    #11
    Having keywords in urls helps with SEO, fact
     
    directfuture, Jul 9, 2011 IP
  12. MartinPrestovic

    MartinPrestovic Peon

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    #12
    I don't have any split tests or hard evidence that I can actually show you, but I do know that it is better based on experience.

    I was hired to redo the site structure on a blog a couple of years ago. The blog itself was about 2 and a half years old and had just over 400 posts all of which were in the post_id format. The owner had heard about keywords in URL's being better and thus had started trying to implement it himself, when he got stuck with the mod_rewrite he came to me.

    I implemented 301 redirection to the blog to transfer the link juice from the old format to the new format. I was also asked to setup a sitemap plugin and submit it to his Google Webmaster Tools account which gave me access to his analytics. I asked if I could watch his traffic to see if the change had any impact as I was also interested to see the outcome and he agreed to let me watch it for a month after the changes were complete.

    Due to the age of the web site it only took Google 3-4 days to fully index the new URL format. Initially the search engine traffic dropped quite considerably, after about 14 days the traffic levels were back to normal and within 21 days the traffic was increasing at a steady rate.

    I also monitored three of his blog posts and all of them followed a similar pattern by dropping initially, then getting back to their originally ranking before increasing.

    Obviously back then there were fewer ranking factors than there are today so it's plausible that it was easier to see the effect of this particular change. Based on this experience I have always opted to optimize with keywords in the URL, so long as they make sense to have them there (e.g. not keyword stuffing).
     
    MartinPrestovic, Jul 9, 2011 IP
  13. komputertips

    komputertips Peon

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    #13
    Wooww, I am really satisfied with this explanation MartinPrestovic.....Thanks for this matter. I have implemented keywords in url from long time ago till now, it means I have do the right thing, but the traffic I got still low...Is there anything I can do to increase my visitor's traffic?
     
    komputertips, Jul 9, 2011 IP
  14. MartinPrestovic

    MartinPrestovic Peon

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    #14
    Rather than hijack this thread and talk about things which aren't relevant to the thread starters topic I would suggest that you start your own thread in this forum to get specific advice about your individual web site like this guy did and where I provided a set of actionable points for his specific situation.
     
    MartinPrestovic, Jul 9, 2011 IP
  15. Riderz

    Riderz Peon

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    #15
    Agree With your opinion
     
    Riderz, Jul 9, 2011 IP
  16. Kiranraj

    Kiranraj Well-Known Member

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    #16
    Yes, keyword in the domain name or url helpa a lot for getting ranking for that targeted keywords
     
    Kiranraj, Jul 12, 2011 IP
  17. abhishekp.vibrantcreation

    abhishekp.vibrantcreation Peon

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    #17
    URL's with keyword's are more search engine and user friendly. These makes it easier for search engine spider to index and for user to understand what the page might be. As URL's contains keywords, these keywords get good boosting and the keyword density of the keywords upgraded.