URL SEO
-
Hi All
I am completely new to SEO and I have a question about URL's which I would like advise on.
We are about to launch an immigration consultancy website which caters for several countries.
For the example below we are targeting the keyword "UK Visit Visa", which URL would be better from an SEO prospective?
1. www.example.com/uk/visit-visa
2. www.example.com/uk/uk-visit-visaThanks,
Fuad
-
Hi Fuad
You're welcome, am glad to have been able to help.
All the best for your website and business,
Kind regards
Simon
-
Thanks to everyone that took the time to answer my question really appreciate your contributions.
Best wishes,
Fuad
-
Hi Simon,
Thanks for your comprehensive answer really, really helpful. We are planning to use sub-folders for different countries but we will now combine this with your suggestion of putting really important pages on the root.
I have already read 'The Beginner's Guide to SEO and it was fantastic.
I am sure I will be bothering you with more SEO no brainers in the near future.
Kind regards,
Fuad
-
John and Casey have given good advice,
if you are trying to rank in different countries on the same website.You should read this page, New markup for multilingual content
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/12/new-markup-for-multilingual-content.html
-
Hi Fuad
A good question.
The answer kind of depends upon your intended structure for your website going forwards. It's usually advisable to keep pages at as high a level as possible, as in having a fairly flat hierarchy.
If you are to have a sub-folder for each country, then from the above, my answer would be:
because you won't need 'uk' to be there twice in the URL.
If these were deemed to be really important pages for your visitors, then you could even consider:
so that these pages are at the highest possible level. Though this depends on how you are structuring the rest of your website, could be that it's best for the User Experience & Navigation that all UK pages fall within a UK sub-folder.
Also consider whether or not you need the www. as that is a subdomain, could go for **example.com/uk/visit-visa **
As you are new to SEO, check out 'The Beginner's Guide to SEO' here on SEOmoz. Chapter 4 has some coverage of URL Structures.
I hope that helps,
Regards
Simon
-
You might want to be careful. Duplicate content issues will arise if the same content is on the same page for different countries.
I agree with Casey www.example.com/uk/visit-visa will be just fine.
-
Hi Faud,
There is no reason to stuff uk in your URL twice, search engine will see that /uk/ just fine. As this is just a small part of the algorithm anyways either way is just fine for SEO, so use the one whats better for the user.
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
-
How important are author bios to SEO?
I'm trying to understand the importance of author bios to Google and its latest algorithms. Some say author bios affect rankings, but others say that has not been specifically stated by Google — but it does affect the user experience. Anyone have input on this? Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | SallieJ0 -
Does personalization that changes meta data display in SERPs impact SEO?
My company has been rolling out personalization at the page level across our site using behavior paths embedding content from cross pathed pages as well as customer journey mapping. The dynamically generated content doesn’t change the URLs. In the SERPs I’m seeing that our title tags and meta descriptions also seem to be dynamically generated even though we have these elements crafted. The way our elements are crafted: Title tag: descriptive Keyword rich phrase | Brand Meta description: Keyword rich, grammatically correct description tied to title tag and page content for consistency. I search a specific URL: Title tag display: Keyword rich phrase | Brand – Brand Meta description display: Random content pulled from the page I search a phrase that includes Brand + keywords in the URL: Title tag display: Title tag we crafted Meta description display: Meta description we crafted I search a phrase that includes Brand + keywords in the title tag: Title tag display: Title tag we crafted Meta description display: Random content pulled from the page Does Google crawl the page and digest the title tag and meta description we crafted? Or is Google going to ding us for having the brand twice, exceeding the length of the title tag, etc.? I have been searching the interwebs, forums and the cosmos, but the only information I’m finding is related to the fact that URLs are changing and how that would impact SEO. That’s not the case for us. Thoughts on how all this is impacting our SEO efforts?
Algorithm Updates | | NStarJM0 -
SEO experiments
Hello All, I would appreciate if you could share with me your insight and advise on how to run SEO and UX experiments. How do we set up the proper benchmark and control groups, what tools to use? How can we ensure that the changes we see are not due to other factors and what difference is needed to confirm our findings? Some of the things I would like to test is if certain words in the title tag can correlate with higher CTR or with lower bounce rates. I would also like to quickly test if the common best practices only 1 h1 etc have any effect on rankings at all. Please share with me from knowledge and experience. Thanks Much!
Algorithm Updates | | Joseph-Green-SEO0 -
Timeline for 301 Redirects to Take Full Effect in SEO Rankings?
Hey, I am working on transitioning a website and all of my current URL's will be slightly changed (moving to dynamic pages). I understand that I will need to 301 redirect all the old pages to their new counterparts but I would like to know how long it will take for the 301 redirects to take full effect in the search rankings. I ask because my site is an e-commerce site that receives 90% of it's business in January and the transition would take place December 15th. If my search rankings are not back up to par by January 1st then I will take a drastic hit to revenue. Please help this SEO noob out!
Algorithm Updates | | Stew2221 -
What is the best SEO solution for pagination?
Dear all, What is the best SEO solution for pagination? for example, what code do I need to put on these individual pages? /page-1 /page-2 /page-3 (final page) Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | HMK-NL0 -
How to do SEO for Google places.New trends and tips
How to do SEO for Google places.New trends and tips .Most clients wants their biz in Google places in First page .
Algorithm Updates | | innofidelity0 -
This Guy Is Turning SEO Upside Down
Hi, Everything my competitor does goes against everything I have learned about SEO so far. For starters: he registered a brand NEW domain and within a space of **4 months and ** has a top ranking for one of the most competitive search terms on Google. he uses scraped content the navigation is almost non-existent. his backlinks seem dodgy. 1-page sites with content that doesn not relate. Bunch of links to other websites too And yet his site stats are as follows: Domain Authority: 72 MozRank: 4.63 MozTrust: 4.72 Linking Root Domains: 1725 On further investigation I discoverd that he owns a SEO company and that they in fact have achieved a #1 rank in various niches such as life insurance, car insurance, mortgage etc. On his SEO site he actually promises a #1 ranking in less than 4 months. The sample sites he lists on there all achieved #1 over a 4 month period...of course he owns most of these domains and then just sells the leads... So, my question is how on earth does he do it? Do you have any ideas Zane
Algorithm Updates | | Springboks0 -
Local SEO url format & structure: ".com/albany-tummy-tuck" vs ".com/tummy-tuck" vs ".com/procedures/tummy-tuck-albany-ny" etc."
We have a relatively new site (re: August '10) for a plastic surgeon who opened his own solo practice after 25+ years with a large group. Our current url structure goes 3 folders deep to arrive at our tummy tuck procedure landing page. The site architecture is solid and each plastic surgery procedure page (e.g. rhinoplasty, liposuction, facelift, etc.) is no more than a couple clicks away. So far, so good - but given all that is known about local seo (which is a very different beast than national seo) quite a bit of on-page/architecture work can still be done to further improve our local rank. So here a a couple big questions facing us at present: First, regarding format, is it a given that using geo keywords within the url indispustibly and dramatically impacts a site's local rank for the better (e.g. the #2 result for "tummy tuck" and its SHENANIGANS level use of "NYC", "Manhattan", "newyorkcity" etc.)? Assuming that it is, would we be better off updating our cosmetic procedure landing page urls to "/albany-tummy-tuck" or "/albany-ny-tummy-tuck" or "/tummy-tuck-albany" etc.? Second, regarding structure, would we be better off locating every procedure page within the root directory (re: "/rhinoplasty-albany-ny/") or within each procedure's proper parent category (re: "/facial-rejuvenation/rhinoplasty-albany-ny/")? From what I've read within the SEOmoz Q&A, adding that parent category (e.g. "/breast-enhancement/breast-lift") is better than having every link in the root (i.e. completely flat). Third, how long before google updates their algorithm so that geo-optimized urls like http://www.kolkermd.com/newyorkplasticsurgeon/tummytucknewyorkcity.htm don't beat other sites who do not optimize so aggressively or local? Fourth, assuming that each cosmetic procedure page will eventually have strong link profiles (via diligent, long term link building efforts), is it possible that geo-targeted urls will negatively impact our ability to rank for regional or less geo-specific searches? Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | WDeLuca0