Hi have a quick question when google calculate your keyword relevancy of the url with the keywords do they base it on the Display URL or Actual URL. I would say display URL but want to be 100% sure
I do not believe Google even uses "keywords in URL" as a metric to determine relevancy, or if it does, it would be minor, because the only way relevancy can actually be calculated is by looking at the page itself. The only reason SEO's recommend keywords in a URL is because when people link to you, they will naturally use the URL as the anchor text and thus you would get your targeted keywords in the anchor text. Anchor text is something that Google regards as very important for determining relevancy, hence why SEO's often recommend keywords within a URL. Besides your display URL and destination URL must match each other otherwise you violate their terms. If Google had to pick either (which it doesn't because they must be the same anyway) they'd pick the destination URL because it wants to determine the keyword relevancy of the actual page not a fake display URL for instance.
I don;t think keywords play a role in how google judges the display url. As long as the display matches some part of the landing page you can usually get away with it. Hope that helps. Good luck. -Patz
That's exactly what I was thinking too! The display URL is relevant to the destination page most of the time anyway! It acts as a prep tool I think. Google likes it when the display URL matches in with the adcopy on the destination page and for my money it is impossible to be too relevant in all areas anyway! Play the game their way and you will come up trumps everytime! Dave.
google does not use the keywords in the url of either the display or destination for relevance or bonus of any sorts