Forcing keywords into domain structure
-
Hi there,
Over the last few years, I've seen people structuring their site so that their main content is all housed in a folder named after the site's primary keywords.
For example, if I had some content about home insurance, normally naming conventions state that I might put the content at a URL such as:
www.mydomain.com/home-insurance
However, some sites, may change this structure to include their main keyword again in the URL string:
www.mydomain.com/insurance/home-insurance
The folder 'insurance' would normally hold the site's Sitemap to increase internal linking strategy too.
I'd be really interested to hear whether anyone has seen any serious benefits from re-structuring their site in this way? What are your thoughts on this?
Thanks,
-
As Axel and Acorn I also think that you should leave the URL the shortest possible in terms of SEO. Also if you change the URL structure, the external links pointing to the old pages wont be updated automatically and will be kind of wasted.
-
If there where no search engines would you do it?
This simple question often helps you with common sense. Dont't make the site (internal & external) too complicated.
-
I'd always recommend that the navigation is useful to the user. e.g.
if your website covered other areas of finance then this would make sense:
finance.com/insurance/home-insurance/
finance.com/insurance/motor-insurance/
finance.com/loans/homeowner-loans/but if you were adding it just for seo, personally i wouldn't bother. I'd go for
Insurance.com/home-insurance/
insurance.com/motor-insurance/ -
Hi Axel - thanks for the response.
What about if you're starting out on a new site though? Would you go with the amended URL structure or the more traditional one?
-
I don't think it's worth the effort to change all the URLs...
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Pyramid link structure - how to noindex, nofollow
I'm talking about this article: https://moz.com/learn/seo/internal-link Take this sample: HOME --> Shirts --> Plain shirt --> shirt#1 Product page: noindex, follow all links except 1 from breadcrumbs to nearest category (plain shirts). SubCategory page (plain shirts): noindex, follow all links except 1 link from breadcrumbs to nearest category (shirts) and all products belonging to current subcategory. Category page (shirts): noindex, follow all links except 1 link from breadcrumbs to front page (site.com) and links to own subcategories. Front page: noindex, follow all links except 12 links to main categories (shirts, pants etc.) Is it correct? If I noindex some parts of website, will it be harmful?
On-Page Optimization | | SilverStar10 -
URL Structure Suggestion
Hi
On-Page Optimization | | sandeep.clickdesk
My site url: http://goo.gl/AiOgu1
We are working on URL structure of our website. I have one query about URL structure.
Which one is good URL structure according to user and SEO prospective.
The targeted keyword for the particular page is "wordpress live chat". Is it worthful to rewrite the present url "https://www.abc.com/wordpress" to "https://www.abc.com/wordpress-live-chat" Please suggest.0 -
Dashes "-" in keyword?
Just running over the page/keyword analyzer and Moz picked up the fact that my link and title are not the same as the keyword I am targeting. I am targeting the keyword "Battlefield 4 CD Key" However my title (and therefore link) are Battlefield 4 CD-Key. Note the dash. Does the dashes matter in SEO or should I try to remove them and have continuity through all of the page.
On-Page Optimization | | MrPenguin0 -
Multiple Years Domain Registration
Is there benefit to registering a domain name for multiple years from a SEO standpoint?
On-Page Optimization | | lbohen0 -
How to force a refresh after on-page optimisation update
After updating areas highlighted in the On-Page Optimization report even after clicking the [Grade My On-page Optimization] the results don't refresh or reflect the changes eg The h1 tag does include the exact search term and there is bolded examples of the keyword phrase but report says not! Is there a way to force an update or is it a time related issue?
On-Page Optimization | | RobWillox0 -
Site Structure
I'm confused about the best way for seo to set up the site structure . i understand the examples of the pyramid diagrams and how link juice flows, however does this mean that global navigation is not good? It appears the pyramid structure leads to the designated number of category pages (we'll use five) and they lead to the 5 content pages etc and some "superman pages" can be linked to from the home page but is this is global navigation or anchor text navigation and is gloval navigation acdeptable for content pages? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
On-Page Optimization | | JulB0 -
I have a direct question about file structure.
This question is about a new file structure and SEO friendly URL's. Does a file name make a difference? I have a direct question about file structure. Our old site was formated with a URL of http://rousechamberlin.com/about_us.aspx our new site is structured http://rousechamberlin.com/AboutUs/ no file no extension. As the SEO guy of the company and not the programmer my feeling is this is killing us. Does anybody have any thoughts on this?
On-Page Optimization | | HeadWebChef0 -
Title Keyword Question
I'm writing up keywords for new pages on a website. There are a number of variations on the way we can say what we're looking for, and I don't want to post the specific keywords but I'll give an example using fruits. Let's say I want to optimize for Granny Smith apples, McIntosh apples, Jonathan apples, etc. Could my title be Apples - Granny Smith, McIntosh, Jonathan and my page will come up when someone searchs "Granny Smith apples" or "McIntosh apples" etc. or do the words have to be repeated in order. Obviously I will also be repeating these in the description and on the page I'm optimizing. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | crlana0