Exact Match Domain + shorter permalink vs. longer permalink?
-
So here's the scenario...
You own the exact match domain for "Acupuncture Intake Form" and want to create a page that targets the phrase, "Acupuncture Intake Form Template"...
In terms of SEO, which of the following permalinks does a better job targeting the term "Acupuncture Intake Form Template" :
A) www.acupunctureintakeform.com/template/
B) www.acupunctureintakeform.com/acupuncture-intake-form-template/
From a user-friendliness perspective, I can definitely see why the /template/ is more ideal. It's more memorable, easier to link to, and logical.
I'm just wondering whether there is some edge that the /acupuncture-intake-form-template/ has that I'm not aware of, or if there's some gray area.
I can also think of scenarios where the longer version might be better. For example, if there were several different kinds of acupuncture intake form templates. If that were the case, then /template/ might be too vague (e.g. is it the normal "acupuncture intake form template" or is it the "acupuncture intake form template with diagram"). So in that respect, the longer one might be less concise in certain situations, but in others provide more clarity.
(Note: I'm looking for answers to this situation as it applies to any website. I just chose this extremely small niche exact match domain because it's an example that illustrate my questions).
Thanks in advance for any answers, insights, or comments! I'm not sure if there's a specific answer, but I'm sure there are some key points to discuss.
Michael
-
Rebekah, Igor, and Greg - thanks for the helpful (and quick!) responses, I appreciate it.
-
www.acupunctureintakeform.com/template/ is a much better idea.
There will be no benefit in terms of SEO for you to repeat the keyword in the URL
As for the future pages, you could always do the following
www.acupunctureintakeform.com/template/
www.acupunctureintakeform.com/template-with-diagrame/
www.acupunctureintakeform.com/template-with-pictures/
etc
Hope that helps.
Greg
-
Hello Michael,
In my opinion since you already have an exact match domain and making your URL to the template as www.acupunctureintakeform.com/acupuncture-intake-form-template/
is kind of redundant, long, doesn't look that good, and might look like you're trying to manipulate rankings by doing keyword stuffing.
I would recommend something like:
www.acupunctureintakeform.com/template-forms
www.acupunctureintakeform.com/templates
etc..
I think its better to concentrate on the ON PAGE SEO, its far more important to have good content that will lure in visitors and make them link and share you content VS getting a headache from worrying about the URL address. Obviously I'm not talking about completely ignoring it and putting your template under something like /contact us/ section. Just make it easy and straight to the point, I think that is the best way to do it. In my case I tend to over think things which is not a good thing, so lately I go with the first idea that comes to me that looks and sounds simple!
-
I personally think it would be best to use /template. Or in the case of specific templates, shorten the full phrase to /intake-template/ and then take advantage of the Title tag, H1s and other on-page content to target the keywords you are looking for. With the second scenario you are relying too much on the URL for your keywords and this may send a spammy signal - especially if combined with other optimization efforts.
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
-
With the release of so many domains from .expert through to even .xyz why don't we see many around the top of SERPS?
And should I use one of these to create a nice looking site, invest time, energy, resource, money or will I simply regret it later and stick to the main TLDs? First question on Moz (yey)
On-Page Optimization | | LGG1230 -
SEO for a Domain which contains Multiple individual sites
My website structure www.example.com (wordpress installation number 1)
On-Page Optimization | | kevinbp
www.example.com/forum/ (vbulletin installtion)
www.example.com/shop/ (wordpress installation number 2) Each of these individual pages contains a fresh wordpress/vbulletin installation with their individual admin control panel. Am i doing this website entirely wrong? Is my website considered as a single website or does Google classify it as 3 different websites? My Ranking page is, www.example.com, and by blog post is www.example.com/forum/blog. When i do a link within my blog entry to my main ranking page, does it count as external or internal link?0 -
Multiple Years Domain Registration
Is there benefit to registering a domain name for multiple years from a SEO standpoint?
On-Page Optimization | | lbohen0 -
Title Tag: Phrases vs. Keywords Separated by "|"
Hello, One of my client's old sites has all category titles of the form (for example) running shoes | running shoe | walking shoes | walking shoe including many that perform well with over 60 characters. I'm in the process of rewriting the titles into something like Running and Walking Shoes, A quality shoe at OurShoes.com The reason I'm rewriting them is for future google penalties, and to look better to possible guest post opportunities. Also to look better in the SERPS But the old style is performing very well. What are the real pros and cons of each? Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | BobGW0 -
Pages vs Posts
What are your thoughts on pages vs posts? I am setting up a new blog for a client but not sure how to structure the content. I may just do posts or a whole bunch of page listed down the sidebar. It seems like my pages always rank better than my posts. Has anyone else noticed this? Could it be because of the dates tied posts?
On-Page Optimization | | SixTwoInteractive0 -
Can I exclude sub-domains from the crawl diagnostics?
I am working with a site with 7500 pages in a sub-domain. The root site has 650 pages, but I am having difficulty finding and working with those 650 pages due to all the "noise" from the sub-domain pages that are in Ning and can't be fixed. Can i exclude sub-domains from the crawl?
On-Page Optimization | | robertdonnell0 -
Paid CTR Vs Organic CTR for high ranked terms - say average position 2 in Adwords and average position of 4 in Google SERP
Consider a situation where we are getting 5000 impressions for a term in Adwords and Bing/Yahoo and the same term with the same landing page is ranked within top 5 positions of Google and Bing search. If we get 2.00% CTR in Paid - Adwords and MSN average, What will be the acceptable Organic CTR - which is available in webmaster tool? Apart from Title and Description, what are the other areas need improvement to increase Organic CTR?
On-Page Optimization | | gmk15670 -
301 redirect (www.domain.com/index to www.domain.com)
Hello, Please let me know what are the exact right steps in order to get rid of the duplicate content issues related with: www.domain.com/index.html same as www.domain.com without creating an infinite loop. Do you have a step by step guide posted within seomoz including 301 redirect for non www to www for all urls and index.whatever to main domain name without going into a infinite loop ? btw how to you spot the loop ? is it obvious like never ending refresh of the home page ? thanks a lot !
On-Page Optimization | | eyepaq2