Keyword in URL: Ranking Factor?
-
I've got a site about a specific topic, which we'll call "themes" for the sake of this discussion. I personally like to keep the url structure short and clean (for usability purposes, but mainly because I'm a perfectionist and a minimalist).
I feel that adding "themes" to the url structure is a bit redundant. However, nearly every keyword phrase that my site should rank for includes the word "themes." So I'm wondering how much I'm handicapping myself by not including the keyword "themes" in the url?
The domain name itself sort of includes the keyword . . . although it's in Italian (I chose the domain for it's brand-ability, not for the keyword). A quick example:
My Url Structure: www.themo.com/topic/abc
My Competitor's Url Structure: www.sitesample.com/themes/topic/abc
For many of the keywords, the competitors with the keyword in the url rank highest. But, I'm not sure how much emphasis to place on this, because from my understanding Google doesn't pay as much attention to url keywords anymore . . . and those sites might just be ranking high because they've been around for so long (which also happens to be the reason why they coincidentally also include the keyword in the url, because they started the site when that was a high ranking factor).
Thoughts? Should I just trash my perfectionism and add the keyword to the url structure?
(By the way, the site is only a couple months old and doesn't have any significant backlinks to inner pages yet, so changing the url structure wouldn't be a big deal if I decided to do that).
-
Thank you for this information Erwan. Exactly what I was looking for.
-
Wow Erwan,
Great info
-
I made a test recently with the keyword "histoire de la bretagne" on google.fr; this keyword is interesting because it is not a commercial one and the links are not manipulated.
Please find the rankings results attached.
Results 1-4 = long articles (22 000 words for #1 wikipedia), high DA/PA
But result 5 = no article, low DA/PA but still outranking better pages because the keyword is in the domain name = <cite>centre-histoire-bretagne.com</cite>
Pages 6 to 10 are better; page 7 should be in top 3 in term of quality (original content with 20 000 words) but they don't have the exact keyword in their URL !
With no or few backlinks, you can outrank a better website if you have your keyword in domain name or close to it in URL.
Result 9 is a university with crazy backlinks, good alexa rank and some social engagement; but their website has 0 SEO; URL = bibnum.univ-rennes2.fr/items/show/336
In my opinion, Google still pay serious attention to URL keywords and you should optimize yours.
Hope this help!
-
I don't need an audit for on-page optimization since I'm familiar with what should be done when sticking to the "rules" of SEO.
I'm basically trying to figure out how much benefit that keyword being in the url is going to have. In other words, am I going to have a hard time outranking my competitors for those keywords even if I have the better site?
-
Hi,
I would advise you to do a site audit and have a look at your on page optimisation before making drastic changes,
In saying this your keyword in your url is of benefit.
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
-
Unsolved How to add geo keyword without it looking keyword stuffed
I'm updating my mobile home inspection page and I want to add geo keywords with my seed keyword Mobile Home Inspections. How do I add these so that the page do not look like it keyword stuffed? Is there a technique that you use for this? I was thinking something like internal links to the City pages of have but then the Anchor text landing page would be a cite page and not a mobile home inspection page.
On-Page Optimization | | Vallerinspects1 -
The Keyword density in a landing page is very low . by adding meta keyword tag can improve keyword density?
The Keyword density in a landing page is very low . by adding meta keyword tag can improve keyword density?
On-Page Optimization | | socialhi50 -
Keyword Saturation
Hi guys, A run a niche price comparison website and the keywords I'm targeting are the product names themselves. I recall Moz recommended that using the keyword too many times on site was not a good thing. Typically, I would have a unique description for the products and the list of merchants, prices, links to thier site and thier product names. This resulted in my keyword appearing many times on site, in slightly different forms (the product names were taken from the merchants feed) I no longer see this warning in the recomended and I believe it is more transparent for my visitors if they see the merchants website name on my site. Is it safe to put them back on my site? Mark
On-Page Optimization | | MrPenguin0 -
Keyword repeats/presence in url's & over-optimisation
Hi I'm about to launch a redesigned site and worried about overdoing kw presence on-page, primarily using in url's since will already be using kw in titles as well as page content. What's current thinking re over optimisation: If kw is in titles and page content is it best not to repeat again in url structure i.e. less is more, even though this will cause things like SeoMoz on-page grade score to fall, or better to keep them/add them ? Personally i think it makes sense to include kw in url again since helps make the page relevant, and so long as matches the content should help as opposed to hinder rankings for the pages target keyword. However when i look into this some say don't do this since is over-optimisation The sites generally ranking quite well for its target kw which i obviously don't want to lose after re-launch & hopefully improve further, in the case of this example they are 'Sports Centre Services' & 'Sports Centre Equipment Rental'). The sites current url structure is similar to this below example: frankssportscentres.com/services/sports-centre-equipment-rental Would it be better to keep following existing/above format or to go with either of the below options i.e. more kw rich urls or less: frankssportscentres.com/sports-centre-services/sports-centre-equipment-rental Or frankssportscentres.com/sports-centre-services/equipment-rental Or even less frankssportscentres.com/services/equipment-rental Many Thanks in advance for any helpful comments Cheers Dan
On-Page Optimization | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Should I use bolded keywords for keywords in the content throughout the page?
If I'm trying to optimize for a specific keyword, should I bold all of the keywords that appear in the content of the page or just one or two? or none at all?
On-Page Optimization | | globalrose.com0 -
To enter keyword meta tags or to not enter keyword meta tags?
I've been doing SEO for awhile, but new to SEOMoz. I'm surprised that SEOMoz does not recommend keyword meta tags. I didn't enter them for the longest time because I know Google doesn't care about them. However, I did read that other search engines DO use them. And therefore that is why you should have them. I teach my customers about SEO, and I know it would be much easier for them not to enter or worry about the keyword meta tags. However, I would love to hear opinions here. And to Bing/Yahoo put any weight into them or is it only really small search engines? Thanks! Hilary
On-Page Optimization | | endlessrange0 -
How important is it to include the target keyword phrase in the page URL?
If I want to target a keyword phrase to a particular phrase, but do not want to change the URL of that page, will that negatively impact my rankings? I am also wondering if I can get around it by creating a new, short URL that 301 redirects to the original URL. Would that be as effective as including the keyword in the original URL?
On-Page Optimization | | susannajbost0 -
Meta Keywords
Hello Everyone- Quick question about meta keywords. Most SEO's agree that meta keywords are no longer used as a ranking factor in Google. My question is, if a client comes to me and they already have a bunch of meta keywords on their site what would the smart strategy be? 1. Remove all the meta keyword data from the clients site 2. Scale the meta keywords back by only leaving the top keywords in the code? 3. Do nothing Thanks for all your time! Regards, Bill Parlaman
On-Page Optimization | | wparlaman0