Is it better to shorten my existing url to use only keyword after domain with a 301 redirect from existing url
-
I have a long existing URL that has included my key word but the url has about 5 additional words in the text ( eg url would have
" /super widgets in stock at the widget store " as url text after domain. keywords is super widget
The URL was at the top of search results for my keyword for many years until recently. Is it better to shorten my url text to now use only my keyword " /super-widgets " after the domain with a 301 direct from my existing url to optimize it
Thanks
-
Thank you Gaston. Anyone have any input regarding SSL certificates and submitting various url versions to Google Search Console. My certificate is only for a single url so should this be the site that I specify to GSC. Volusion does not allow wild card or multi-site ssl certificates. I'm a little confused as to what is the best way to proceed. The older non secured url version is the one with a long analytics history.
-
Hi Howard,
Sorry for the late reply, just been terribly busy.Dont worry about the redirection, as long its 301 and dont have more than 3 hops or redirection loops.
Remember that the ranking strenght is not in the URL and it being short or having the keyword focused in the path. Your page will rank as long as google understand that you bring value to searchers and you send Google the correct signals about the keyword.
Be consistent with the content, URLs, title and meta tags.Best luck!
GR -
Thanks again. Just wondering if you know how long it takes for the redirect to start passing on seo value once I set up the 301 and delete the original page
-
Thanks Joseph
-
No problem. URL shortening with 301 redirects and making sure it is a keyword-focused URL path is a great way to often get some quick wins and improvements in rankings. Godspeed!
-
Shorter is better, we often use https://backlinko.com/on-page-seo as a guideline for on-site stuff like this, and we have seen increases in rankings wiht shortening a URL to just include the target keyword and then setting up a proper 301 redirect as well.
-
Thanks for your reply. I guess I'm trying to use my Meta Title to help users understand and using the URL text to focus more sharply on the keyword itself, and additionally trying to weigh out the benefits of focus on keyword vs user benefits vs the loss of any link juice due to 301 redirecting from what was once a strong page to my new re-optimized page.
-
Thank you for your feedback.
-
Hi Howard, to answer your question, in my experience 9 times out of 10 the answer is Yes.
An example of this is a page on our website that we were trying to rank for "PPC Kansas City".
Initially, our URL was https://seo-kansas-city.com/services/google-adwords-campaigns/, but we then changed it to https://seo-kansas-city.com/services/ppc/ and added a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new URL.
This resulted in our rankings jumping from page 2 on Google to the top 3-5 positions on page 1 of Google. We also still rank in the top 3-5 for "google adwords kansas city" and "google adwords campaigns kansas city".
I would just be sure to be tracking the target keyword rankings for that page specifically before you make the change.
Hope this helps and best of success to you!
-
Hi!
im just jumping in to say that the rule in URLs should always be to help users.
Think it this way: Users should be able to understand the content (or what that page is about) with the URL and also be able to remember in order to just type it into the address box in a browser.Of course that is utopic, but also misleading to say that focus only in keeping it short. Because only for the sake of shortening the URL you might harm the other idea behind: helping users.
What Joseph said is correct, just wanted to express my thoughts on this.
Also, yes. I'd go with /super-widgets if and only if your content will be talking about super widget (what ever thar are) and you're trying to rank for that exact keyword.
Hope it helps.
Best luck
GR -
Hello there,
Google will truncate your URL when it exceeds a pixel length. I usually keep it as short as possible, make sure it let people understand what they might expect from that page, but not too long to look annoying. Here are some tips:
- Keep it as short as possible
- Don't use stop words
- Avoid using special characters (dash is fine and can be used as spaces)
I couldn't list all of the tips but this few guides will help you whenever you creating a new page and URL.
https://moz.com/blog/15-seo-best-practices-for-structuring-urls
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-friendly-url-structure-2/202790/
Hope this helps,
Joseph Yap
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
-
The seomoz on page keyword analysis tool is not showing title or keyword in document
the SEOMOZ onpage analysis tool is not not showing title or keyword for any page in one of my sites. It says there are no title elements on my page and there are, i checked the source code myself and they are there and correct. my title and keywords are in there and show up fine in firefox and internet explorer even after i refresh them. why would this tool show them as missing in one of my sites but not others? I'm worried that google's spider might not see them if the on page analyzer doesn't see them and my rankings might drop. they showed up the other day in the seomoz on page analyzer just fine and i haven't changed anything. Thanks mozzers!
On-Page Optimization | | Ron100 -
Should you use long tail keyword phrases in page names
for example if I was trying to rank for "spokane furnace repair" is it good or bad to name the page something like "spokane-furnace-repair.html"
On-Page Optimization | | Superflys0 -
Temperary redirects
I have a problem with temp redirects, I have a dating site and the redirects happen when guests on the site are prompted to purchase a subscription while trying gain access to the sites contents. I was told to change them to 301 redirects but don't know how. any help, thanks guys.
On-Page Optimization | | clickit2getwithit0 -
How do I do a 301 Redirect in Wordpress
I have several pages that are showing up as "duplicate" on my Wordpress based site based upon the structure of site. I was wondering how to do a 301 redirect for these pages
On-Page Optimization | | SteveSweat0 -
301 Redirect to mobile site effecting rankings
On my site I redirect users when on a mobile device to be redirected to my mobile version of my site. In the last couple weeks I added that redirect in my htaccess file. I just realized today that I am doing a 301 redirect. In the last few weeks my ranking have gotten lower. I am starting to think that because of the redirect my mobile site is not as optimized as my regular site and therefor is effecting my rankings. My question is how can I redirect my users to my mobile site but not use a 301 AND how do I get google to use my main site content for ranking on the mobile side. I want to go back to getting my search rankings on the mobile side using my main sites content. Can I simply remove the 301 on the redirect? Hope that makes sense.
On-Page Optimization | | cbielich0 -
How do i chaneg a url without losing pre-existing linkjuice?
my client has a page on his site: www.revisitors.com/REF/TEST the page is for a free traffic offer...i have this page currently ranking 25th or so for "free traffic" - a great keyword to rank for to promote this offer with..... i want the url to be www.revisitors.com/free-traffic.html and then change the title tags to free traffic | free targeted traffic or something along those lines....i have hardly put in any linkbuilding work at all to get to 25 - it was a surprise but now that we are there i want to tighten things up and optimize as well as possible.... how do i do this without losing previously built linkjuice and without having a duplicate content issue for having both pages exist with a 301 redirect.... if i am wrong about something please dont hesitate to set me straight...i am only masquerading as an seo expert these days anyway.....thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | Ezpro90 -
URL question
Hi guys, the pro campaign thing you got going is wicked, love it. I'm recieving good results with my keywords and have noticed that categories that go beyond sub/sub/sub don't do to well. So I wanna move those that do one step up which makes it go from: http://spytunes.com/practice-guitar/advanced-routine/scales/aeolian to here http://spytunes.com/practice-guitar/advanced-routine/aeolian The existing menu system that follow all these categories across the site will soon go so it won't be a user friendly problem, I will have other type of menus. But, and here is the question: Would I greatly benefit from taking the non existent menu away and just go for: http://spytunes.com/practice-guitar/aeolian while i'm at it? Or do I stick with my current structure? I guess my real question is; how much is there to flat URLs? Cheers -dan lundholm spytunes.com
On-Page Optimization | | spytunes0 -
Would it be bad to change the canonical URL to the most recent page that has duplicate content, or should we just 301 redirect to the new page?
Is it bad to change the canonical URL in the tag, meaning does it lose it's stats? If we add a new page that may have duplicate content, but we want that page to be indexed over the older pages, should we just change the canonical page or redirect from the original canonical page? Thanks so much! -Amy
On-Page Optimization | | MeghanPrudencio0