89 replies to this topic

[alnany]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum as well as to SEO. I've been doing a lot of reading in the past weeks and I'm hoping to learn more from the pros around here. I thank you for your wisdom and aplogize for my lack of in advance

Question: Does a page get better ranking when the URL includes the keyword? Consider the following cases, who would rank better by default?

keyword: monkey food

Case 1: www.monkeyfood.com
Case 2: www.petexperts.com

How about:

Case 1: www.petexperts.com/monkeyfood.html
Case 2: www.petsuperstore.com/buy.html

Thanks!

[Mel]

Hi Al:

IMO there is little if any gain to be achieved by the inclusion of keywords into URLs.

The only exception would be keywords in links that can be parsed :

i.e.

Monkey-food.com as a link might get you a bit of credit for monkey and food, but monkeyfood.com would get nothing.

Better to concentrate on getting your keywords in your page content, page title, alt tags, and text links.

[alnany]

Another thing though:

Let's suppose having a URL that includes the keyword alone doesn't help, but it helps when other sites link to you right? A lot of people link to others by their URL, thus the anchor text will use the keyword, and that would help?

[Jill]

Yes, you are correct, alnany. That's the only benefit of a keyword-rich URL.

Jill

[Drew-z]

That's the only benefit of a keyword-rich URL. 

That seems a bit strong.

For example, I encountered these today during some research.

Around 3/4 of the sites in the top 40 Search Results for "Nantucket" have it at the start of the URL.

I sense there is more to it than just the benefits of linking text.

Whatever the means, it works because keyword URL's are at the top a ton of the time.

[chrishirst]

More importantly out of the top 40 for the search you posted all but 5 have Nantucket in the title



Chris.

[mcanerin]

In general, a page that is named after it's subject would seem to be more on point than a page with a different name. It wouldn't be the critical factor, but it would certainly be connected.

Remember that it's the whole URL, not only the page name. For example, if you had a keyphrase aimed at "Las Vegas homes for sale" (Don't know if it's good, just made it up) Then an URL that looked like:

www.mysite.com/nevada/las-vegas/homes/for-sale.htm

Would make a slight difference over one that didn't have a keyword rich URL (all other things being equal, which they rarely are), or so I'm told.

I'm not recommending that you redesign a site around this, but if you are organising things anyway, this can help a bit. It's not a magic way to get to the top, but it can help a little. Besides, it's a reasonable way to organise a website, and really, that's actually more important.

Ian

[toprank]

Isn't it true that urls with target keywords in them often yield higher clickthroughs than urls without. Of course the SERP title and site summary matter as well. The only data I have for this is our own client logs. Has anyone else found this to be true?

[Jill]

Think about it, guys...

Who buys keyword-rich domain names? People who know at least a little bit about SEO. (Or people who think they do.)

These keyword rich domain names are nearly always attached to highly optimized sites. It's impossible to distinquish which factors made the site get the high ranking.

Not to mention that the keyword-rich URL is only generally one keyword phrase. I don't know about you guys, but I optimize my sites for hundreds of keyword phrases, sometimes. How can a keyword-rich domain help me there? It can't.

Bottom line is that I've optimized hundreds and hundreds of sites, most of which don't have keyword-rich domains, yet they generally rank highly for their optimized keyword phrases.

Jill

[mcanerin]

I have one client who managed to get himself blacklisted for various reasons. One thing he did was buy names like aaa-keyword.com.

I doubt I'd ever click on a domain like that if I had any other choices. (I also don't phone businesses whose yellow page ad/name is AAAAAAA Towing Ltd, or whatever)

My own domain is doing well and is just my last name - not a keyword at all. On the other hand, if your domain looks like you take your topic seriously, like say, oh.... Highrankings.com then it's easier to take the site more seriously as well. All things in moderation. You can have a great, on-topic domain name without being spammy.

Ian

[toprank]

I agree. I do not think having a keyword in the domain name significantly (if at all) affects ranking. But it does affect other things like branding and can clearly convey what category of content to expect on the web site.

[Sharon & Roy]

Indirectly Your Domain Name Is EXTREMELY Important

Question: Does a page get better ranking when the URL includes the keyword?

Welcome Alnany,

The short answer is ... YES.

Consider the following cases, who would rank better by default?

keyword: monkey food

Case 1: www.monkeyfood.com
Case 2: www.petexperts.com

The short answer is ... NEITHER.

Neither URL contains the keyword phrase ...

monkey food

... Therefore, neither URL would rank better since ...

monkeyfood ... DOES NOT EQUAL ... monkey food

How about:

Case 1: www.petexperts.com/monkeyfood.html
Case 2: www.petsuperstore.com/buy.html

The short answer is ... NEITHER.

But if your URLs look like this ...

Case 1: www.petexperts.com/monkey-food.html
Case 2: www.petsuperstore.com/buy.html

... Then it would be Case 1.


We advise clients to concentrate on getting a sufficient amount of Backward Links (inbound links from related Web Pages) with their PRIMARY Keyword Phrase in the Anchor Tag Text in order to attain high rankings.

<a href=http://www.domain.com/>This Is Anchor Tag Text</a>

This particular SEO technique is given much more weight than just placing keywords in the URL and/or file name, DIRECTLY, that is, but INDIRECTLY, it WILL help to increase your Web Page's ranking consideration greatly, due to the fact that folks will more than likely use those keywords in their Anchor Tag Text when they link to your Web Page.

And even if they DON'T, whereas they will simply use your URL instead (which will no doubt be case with the majority of your Backward Links), you'll still get ranking conisderation for your keyword phrase (assuming that you use hyphens to allow the search engines to parse your keywords).

This is the KEY to HIGH RANKINGS!

Just for further information and so that you can put this all into perspective please understand the following statement ...

DIRECTLY, the domain name importance on any given search engine on a scale of 1 to 10 is a 1.

INDIRECTLY, the domain name importance on any given search engine on a scale of 1 to 10 is a 10.

Well, that is to say that your Web Page is really about your domain name and that your domain name is also in your HTML Title Tag and also in the other major HTML Tags, such as the Heading Tag, the Bold or Strong Tag, etc., and as well as being the top keyword phrase in keyword density, keyword order and keyword proximity, and also make sure it's in your Meta Description Tag.

SEO TIP: The best reason to include keywords in your domain name is because you want people to link to your Home Page with your keywords in the Link Text. This is the most important way to get high rankings.

Indirectly your domain name can become an important aspect of the search engine placement process. How so, you may ask?

Well, if you name your domain, Tax-Return-Guru.com instead of your actual company name, Fuller Accounting Services, what do you think your chances would be that people will link to your site with the Anchor Tag Text of ... Tax Return Guru? Probably pretty good, huh? That would be especially encouraging to you if you're targeting the keywords ... tax return.

SEO TIP: Placing keywords in your domain name is like putting your Web Page on auto pilot (or automatic optimization) since others will automatically or naturally link to you with those words. It will also greatly enhance your chances that folks will use those keywords if they are also the name of your business, product, service, publication, etc.

If you would like to view actual SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) where you can see how effective this can be, and not just in a noncompetitive category but in a highly competitive category (that is if you call 6,420,000 Web Pages on 04/05/03 ... and ... 7,360,000 Web Pages on 08/21/03 with this keyword phrase competitive) then visit the following pages and look for the keywords ...

work at home business

... And view how many of the top ranked pages have those keywords included in their domain.

But even more important, also view how many of the top ranked pages do not have those keywords included in their domain.

This should give you enough insight to understand how to put a proper perspective on placing keywords in the domain and/or file name and the direct and indirect ranking consideration given to them.

http://www.google.co...usiness&num=100

Your Friends,

Sharon & Roy

[SearchEngineZ]

Well, although I agree with most of the above (keyword URLs tend to be highly optimized anyway, many other factors are more important, keywords in the link text helps), I do think that they are a factor, for this prime reason:

The most permanent thing your website has is its doman name. For this reason, any keywords in the domain name are likely to reflect the content of the site. If I was running a search engine, it would be a no-brainer to use keywords in a URL as a ranking factor.

I've written an article on the topic, with a couple of search result examples - these were just random searches off the top of my head.

I wrote it because I see keyword URLs doing well in search rankings all the time, but no-one has really studied the idea deeply.

searchenginez.com/domain-keywords.html

[lcobb]

Sharon and Roy's example demonstrates that the domain name can be used effectively to enhance your web site ranking. However, the domain name also speaks loudly about the kind of business underneath the domain name. You can call me old school or whatever, but you could not get me to click on a link the had 5 hyphens in it regardless of how well it matched my search query. A high ranking is only one part of the problem of delivering traffic to the web site.

Larry Cobb
The Robin Sheperd Group

[Marc]

keywords in url.....
I've never worried about using keyowrds in the actual domain name /url

step one:
target your industry kewords

step two: Create your Title
relate your industry keywords within the title of your page.
(I would'nt overdue this.... ie long titles)

step three: Create your Content
relate a couple of your title keywords to the content or vise versa.

example for ya'
www.gdezigns.com/EQ.htm
Title: GDezigns.com - EverQuest Tools and Character Creation
Content Keywords:
EverQuest
EverQuest Tools
EVERQUEST CHARACTER CREATION

overall....I make sure to relate the title with the content I'm serving up!
laters!

Edited by Jill, 22 November 2008 - 11:06 AM.