Site URL's

[swgolf123]

We are redeveloping our website, and have the option to amend URLs (with 301 redirects from old URL to new), so my question is: Would 'golfsite.com/golf-clubs' achieve superior rankings than 'golfsite.com/clubs' for the search term 'golf clubs' if all other factors were the same? Should the URL reflect the intended search term wherever possible?

[portalseo]

Hi swgolf, There are several factors that would have an impact on your url. You can have a URL with no keywords in and still rank high in a competative market. If you can generate enough backlinks to the url and the previous link was doing well then go for the easiest on the eye and for this smaller is normally best.  SE's do pay attention to how your URL is structured however I dont believe this will always be the case now being truthful and if a client asked me to structure their url I would go with golfsite.com/golf-clubs or if i sold multiple items I would go with golfsite.com/golf/clubs and keep it consistant for the rest and have golf/caddy golf/caps golf/balls as it looks as if it's a category within your website as opposed to constant repative urls. You can also go to webmaster tools (google) and see how many variations of the word golf club you have and how many times its repeated if its high then try and lower it. It's a little hard not knowing the website to say for sure, this is just my opinion.

[kwoolf]

Hum. Do you mean golf clubs or golf clubs? If I was to search for a membership club to join to play golf, I would want something else in the URL (or at least in the heading) to show me that the page was a list of clubs and not equipment. So in this particular instance, a category in the URL would be a consideration. golfsite.com/equipment/clubs or something along these lines.

[KeriMorgret]

Did these responses answer your question swgolf, or do you still have some more questions? How did you decide to handle this?

[ninjamarketer]

Key word in the url is important but it is not the only factor that will decide the rank for your target keyword. You can use golf-club or club but here are few other things that should be inline in order to rank for golf-club.

1. Authority of your domain.

2. Quality and quantity of the incoming links to your main domain and the target page

3. Relevance of the on page content on the golf club page. ( LDA score)

4. Title tag

6. Anchor text of the backlinks to the target page.

and several others.

Since you already have the word golf in your domain adding the keyword again in the url will not make a signficant difference as long as you target the page content for golf clubs. The key is it have original content and organic backlinks.

[StalkerB]

All things being equal then /golf-clubs is better; as I assume you'll be targeting that exact term on the page, it's not too long and users can tell exactly what the page is about from it.

As long as your URLs don't get crazy long, if you can target your main keyword for the page with the URL I say go for it.

[saibose]

I would say that golf clubs would serve you better than just clubs. Clubs can also mean a gathering place for folks with similar interests where you get clear results for the keyword golf clubc if you mention it in the URL itself.