URL structure for a new WordPress site

[flo2]

Hi

I'm building a new next big thing website from scratch (for a translation agency) and I encountered an issue with the URL structure. I need to chose the URL for important targeted keyword pages and I have a conflict between two tools I'm using. Please read below the situation:

domain: mashtranslation.com

target keyword: french translation services

which URL you think is better from a SEO point of view (and possibly for users):

mashtranslation.com/services/french/

OR

mashtranslation.com/french-translation-services/

I'm asking this because one WordPress plugin (Wordpress SEO by Yoast) says the URL structure is not optimised while another tool (Market Samurai) says the URL is optimised.

[CPU]

If the keyword being targeted is french translation services then assuming everything else on the page being equal the second option would be better as by virtue of its name it is telling the search engines that the page is about french translation services rather than french services.

SEO tools can be great to automate tasks and highlight issues by quickly checking across entire sites but they are only as good as the information input into them which may not be up to date, may be an individuals interpretation of best practices etc. As such relying 100% on the output of an SEO plugin may not give optimal results. It is worth querying, checking and keeping an eye on any recommendations provided by them to see if they feel right given your accumulating SEO knowledge.

[EGOL]

mashtranslation.com/french-translation-services/

[flo2]

hmmm wouldn't that make the URL longer and less friendly from a SEO point a view ( by adding .html)? What is the benefit? Cheers

[bemcapaz]

Heres the custom structure that I choosed to use for wordpress

/%postname%.html

So , in your example my page would become

mashtranslation.com/french-translation-services.html

I also have the .html on PAGES plugin installed, that allows this type of permalink structure to also work on the pages created on the cms, and not only on the posts.

So far, I had very good results with this type of permalink.