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
-
1500 words per post * 10 posts vs 15000 words in one article, which is best for SEO?
If you don't have any problems with Text/HTML ratio. Which one do you prefer for better results? With reasons of possible, thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | Eslam-yosef0 -
Is a mobile domain necessary?
Greetings all, I'm starting to build a mobile version of our website to be ready for April 21st. Question is: is it absolutely necessary to have a mobile domain name or can I just direct users to same domain/folder? in other words: www.mywebsite.com/mobile vs m.mywebsite.com - does this even matter? As always, thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | md30 -
Duplicate content on domains we own
Hello! We are new to SEO and have a problem we have caused ourselves. We own two domains GoCentrix.com (old domain) and CallRingTalk.com (new domain that we want to SEO). The content was updated on both domains at about the same time. Both are identical with a few exceptions. Now that we are getting into SEO we now understand this to be a big issue. Is this a resolvable matter? At this point what is the best approach to handle this? So far we have considered a couple of options. 1. Change the copy, but on which site? Is one flagged as the original and the other duplicate? 2. Robots.txt noindex, nofollow on the old one. Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance!
On-Page Optimization | | CallRingTalk0 -
Duplicating content on multiple domains
Hey guys, I've started working with a new client recently called Resource Investing News. I'm more a Social Media person, though I do have SEO experience. RIN has about 40 URLs all of which have original news content published on them. One SEO-related issue that I can see here though is that the primary domain re-publishes all of the original content that the other URLs do. In other words: resourceinvestingnews.com will have an article on it that is also published on goldinvestingnews.com with the same date stamp and a link out to the original article. E.g. http://resourceinvestingnews.com/42539-molybdenum-goes-far-beyond-steelmaking.html http://molyinvestingnews.com/5301-molybdenum-steelmaking-vehicle-demand-electronics-lubricant.html Does anyone have an idea if this is something that should be reviewed and/or whether the content is being negatively affected in search? Many thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | blahblahblah20150 -
Weighing costs & benefits for domain name change.
I've got a site that is under consideration for a domain change, however I have plenty of concerns about our particular situation. I'd love to explain my scenario and then get some feedback! The domain in question is beverlys.com and has been up and running since 1996 (almost 16 years), so it has advantages in that it's a long standing trusted domain. For the majority of that time however, the site was mostly a simple static informational site to accommodate a brick and mortar business. Then starting in 2009 the site underwent the change to become an e-commerce site. Since then we have been working to compete with other sites in the same industry and attempting to rank well in organic results. In particular our business sells fabric, so "fabric" is one keyword we measure in various way to get an idea where we stand with the competition. Over time we have had ups and downs while ranking for "fabric", specifically. At our peak we ranked 16th in Google in September 2011, and 18th as recent as January 2012. However since that time we have fallen off the map in Google's results. Currently we are around the 100th result! Though in Yahoo! and Bing we continue to show strongly with organic rankings hovering between 15-20. I can only theorize that something in the last few rounds of Google's algorithm updates has punished us and thus far have not been able to identity the issue or find any resolution. So, in response, one of the options on the table is to use a new domain name that specifically incorporates the keyword that is important to us. Unfortunately our current domain does not use "fabric" so we would use something like beverly-fabrics.com or what-have you. There is so much potential for disaster in switching domain names that I'm having a hard time considering this as a viable option. But at this point I don't want to close any doors. We want to have the best chance at long term success and if a domain name change would help in that we would do it. I'd love to hear anyone's opinions, recommendations or advice about our situation!
On-Page Optimization | | dickslee230 -
Duplicate content on my domain
I have several pages on my domain that are using the same content except for changing a paragraph or sentence. Do I need to create unique content, even though much of the information pertains to a feature and is related?
On-Page Optimization | | Court_H0 -
My Domain Name - short vs relevant
I'm creating a website for my new web design company in Vancouver. I'm looking to target such keywords as "Web Design Vancouver", etc. I have another company with a hyphenated domain name which is terrible when I'm on the phone and my client asks me for my domain (hard to say, always spelling it out). Also I wanted to have a good snappy name for my new business so I found a 6 letter .com and matching .ca for my company. My question is: is it best to use a short domain name or is it better have my keywords in the domain name? eg. xyz.com vs xyzvancouverwebdesign.com Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | VebianWebandMobileDevelopment0 -
Setting up a domain for a future site
Hi there, That may be a bit of a silly question to ask, but we've setup a new domain for an existing site. While the site is in the making, the site owners wants to already start promoting the new URL on stationeries etc. Hence, we need to setup the new URL so that it forwards to the site, but so that Google doesn't give it the history of a secondary (less important) domain. What is the best way to do this? Currently we've put in a 301 redirect, but will that bear no future consequences on the SEO of the site, when the site is moved to this new domain, and the old domain is 301 redirected. Thanks, SEOeclipse
On-Page Optimization | | Bozboz0