undefined
Skip to content
Moz logo Menu open Menu close
  • Products
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Pro Home
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Home
    • STAT
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Home
    • Compare SEO Products
    • Moz Data
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis
    • Keyword Explorer
    • Link Explorer
    • Competitive Research
    • MozBar
    • More Free SEO Tools
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
    • SEO Learning Center
    • Moz Academy
    • SEO Q&A
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • Case Studies
    • The Moz Story
    • New Releases
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • Products
    • Moz Pro

      Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

    • Moz Local

      Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

    • STAT

      SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

    • Moz API

      Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

    • Compare SEO Products

      See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

    • Moz Data

      Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis

      Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

    • Keyword Explorer

      Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

    • Link Explorer

      Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

    • Competitive Research

      Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

    • MozBar

      See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

    • More Free SEO Tools

      Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO

      The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

    • SEO Learning Center

      Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

    • On-Demand Webinars

      Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

    • How-To Guides

      Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

    • Moz Academy

      Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

    • MozCon

      Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
    Moz API

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

    Find your plan
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Small Business Solutions

      Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

    • Agency Solutions

      Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

    • Enterprise Solutions

      Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

    • The Moz Story

      Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

    • Case Studies

      Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

    • New Releases

      Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

    Surface actionable competitive intel
    New Feature

    Surface actionable competitive intel

    Learn More
  • Log in
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Dashboard
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Dashboard
    • Moz Academy
  • Avatar
    • Moz Home
    • Notifications
    • Account & Billing
    • Manage Users
    • Community Profile
    • My Q&A
    • My Videos
    • Log Out

The Moz Q&A Forum

  • Forum
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Ask the Community

Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. SEO Tactics
  3. Intermediate & Advanced SEO
  4. What is better for SEO keywords in folder or in filename - also dupe filename question

Moz Q&A is closed.

After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

What is better for SEO keywords in folder or in filename - also dupe filename question

Intermediate & Advanced SEO
5
10
5.2k
Loading More Posts
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as question
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
  • irvingw
    irvingw last edited by May 15, 2012, 4:59 PM

    Hey folks,

    I've got a question regarding URL structure. What is best for SEO given that there will be millions of lawyer names and 4 pages per lawyer

    www.lawyerz.com/office-locations/dr-al-pacino

    www.lawyerz.com/phone-number/dr-al-pacino

    www.lawyerz.com/reviews/dr-al-pacino

    www.lawyerz.com/ratings/dr-al-pacino

    OR

    www.lawyerz.com/office-locations-dr-al-pacino

    www.lawyerz.com/phone-number-dr-al-pacino

    www.lawyerz.com/reviews-dr-al-pacino

    www.lawyerz.com/ratings-dr-al-pacino

    OR

    www.lawyerz.com/dr-al-pacino/office-locations

    www.lawyerz.com/dr-al-pacino/phone-number

    www.lawyerz.com/dr-al-pacino/reviews

    www.lawyerz.com/dr-al-pacino/ratings

    Also, concerning duplicate file names:

    In the first example there are 4 duplicate file names with the lawyers name. (would this cause Google to not index some)

    In the second example there are all unique file names (would this look spammy to Google or the user)

    In the third example there are millions of duplicate file names (if 1 million lawyers then 1 million files called "office-locations"  etc (could so many duplicate filenames cause ranking issues)

    Should the lawyers name (which is the main keyword target) appear in the filename or in the folder - which is better for SEO in your opinion? Thanks for your input!

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • crimzen
      crimzen last edited by Jun 6, 2012, 10:14 PM Jun 6, 2012, 10:14 PM

      I like all of the answers here and I would definitely focus on how the user is searching for the lawyers.  If you have a site with millions of lawyers, they would each have an area of practice so it would make sense to develop a structure around this first:

      lawyerz.com/practice-area/state/city/attorney-name

      WIth this structure, a searcher that types in "estate planning lawyer" would be sent to the estate planning lawyers page and allowed to search further for their city and then lawyer names.  I would attach the contact info, reviews directly on that lawyer's page.

      Since your higher volume keywords are going be found within the "practice areas", this would seem the next step after the main domain target of "attorney" or "lawyers".  Then, location can come third, attorney name is most likely a lesser searched keyword but using a url structure such as "attorney-john-doe" reinforces.

      I would LOVE to hear all the expert opinions about this as I am a newbie to seomoz but am finding some great experts and advice over here.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • AlanBleiweiss
        AlanBleiweiss @irvingw last edited by May 16, 2012, 5:42 PM May 16, 2012, 5:42 PM

        while pages with such file names can be indexed, the long-term view dictates avoiding pages with filenames in the URL due to future potential conversion to other frameworks.  It makes a site less than ideal for portability.

        For example, if every page has index.php or whatever.asp and you change platform, you'll end up with every page needing a 301 redirect.  So it's better to avoid that whenever possible.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • itrogers
          itrogers @irvingw last edited by May 16, 2012, 1:42 PM May 16, 2012, 1:42 PM

          Although the filename will be duplicate, the content on those filenames will be okay. Google will look more at the content on the page rather than anything else. There are sites out there that have weird file structures, like:

          /index.php

          /services/index.php

          /products/index.php

          Some CMS's will automatically do this, but they rank fine because they have quality content, even though the index.php is technically a duplicate filename.

          You should be fine with this method.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • AlanBleiweiss
            AlanBleiweiss last edited by May 15, 2012, 8:19 PM May 15, 2012, 8:19 PM

            It's about users for sure.  The last set you show communicates "lawyer name" is more important/valuable.  Which is the valid perspective, since all of those elements relate to that lawyer. If some users still want to find lawyers based on reviews, you can offer a filter for that in your database sorting.  Same with locations.

            On the other side of the coin, instead of "locations", if you had town names, you could group by those so it would be /town-name/lawyer-name/   where all lawyers in the same town fall within that town-name grouping. If it's just /locations/ that's an invalid sort hierarchy.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • irvingw
              irvingw @irvingw last edited by May 15, 2012, 6:08 PM May 15, 2012, 6:08 PM

              yes navigation-wise this definitely makes the most sense

              www.lawyerz.com/dr-al-pacino/office-locations

              i guess what I am mostly looking for an answer about is which is better for rankings, the keyword in the folder or file name and if duplicate file names will harm rankings.

              thanks so much for your assistance guys.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • itrogers
                itrogers @irvingw last edited by May 15, 2012, 5:58 PM May 15, 2012, 5:58 PM

                Ok gotcha- well if that is the case, then think about how the user will navigate to the end result if they started from the home page. Logically, you could assume the following

                If URL structure is as follows:

                www.lawyerz.com/office-locations/dr-al-pacino

                then /office-locations/ should contain links to all office locations of multiple lawyers.

                But with this structure

                www.lawyerz.com/dr-al-pacino/office-locations

                /dr-al-pacino/ should contain links to the 4 other pages. **This option will probably be your best structure. **

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • goodlegaladvice
                  goodlegaladvice last edited by May 15, 2012, 5:54 PM May 15, 2012, 5:54 PM

                  If I am not mistaken it really depends on what users are searching

                  if they are only searching lawyers names than just find a structure that looks pretty and has the lawyer name in it.

                  But if there is any traffic data that points that people search the city or phone number along with the lawyer name than it might be wise to have that in the url structure

                  also ever thought of using subdomains? havent seen that in a lawyer directory yet but some of the major article sites switched to subdomains

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • irvingw
                    irvingw @itrogers last edited by May 15, 2012, 5:53 PM May 15, 2012, 5:53 PM

                    Assume there will be enough content on these pages to not get hit by panda.

                    The reason for doing this is to hopefully secure more than one first page result since these are names and very low competition, we see some sites doing this successfully.

                    We will have locations pages too which will list all the docs in that city

                    http://www.lawyerz.com/nevada/reno/personal-injury-lawyers

                    itrogers irvingw AlanBleiweiss 4 Replies Last reply May 16, 2012, 5:42 PM Reply Quote 0
                    • itrogers
                      itrogers last edited by Jul 10, 2012, 11:12 AM May 15, 2012, 5:39 PM

                      Is there any particular reason why office location, phone number, reviews, and ratings need to be on 4 separate pages? I could see there being a lot of thin content which won't really rank well or provide a ton of user value. Can you give some more info as to why this would be? I could easily see all 4 of these pages combined into one.

                      With that, you can focus your URL structure into categories or local regions or both, depending on how dynamic you want the site to be. For example:

                      http://www.lawyerz.com/nevada/personal-injury/dr-al-pacino

                      OR

                      http://www.lawyerz.com/personal-injury/dr-al-pacino

                      OR

                      http://www.lawyerz.com/nevada/dr-al-pacino

                      Unless there is something that I missing, I think no matter how you structure your URLs, thin content just won't rank.

                      irvingw 1 Reply Last reply May 15, 2012, 5:53 PM Reply Quote 1
                      • 1 / 1
                      1 out of 10
                      • First post
                        1/10
                        Last post

                      Got a burning SEO question?

                      Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                      Start my free trial


                      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.

                      • See all categories

                      Related Questions

                      • BeckyKey

                        Onsite SEO vs Offsite SEO

                        Hey I know the importance of both onsite & offsite, primarily with regard to outreach/content/social. One thing I am trying to determine at the moment, is how much do I invest in offsite. My current focus is to improve our onpage content on product pages, which is taking some time as we have a small team. But I also know our backlinks need to improve. I'm just struggling on where to spend my time. Finish the onsite stuff by section first, or try to do a bit of both onsite/offsite at the same time?

                        Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Oct 27, 2015, 12:32 PM | BeckyKey
                        1
                      • seoman10

                        CDN for SEO (or not)?

                        Does CDN impact on SEO or not? There seems conflicting ideas as to whether they impact positively or negatively, I realise that if the page loads quicker this is a good thing for SEO and usability of course. Does Google see CDN as just cheating and a get-around for not doing the work from the ground up and using good hosting etc? Do you have any direct experience? All constructive input much appreciated!

                        Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Oct 1, 2015, 10:00 AM | seoman10
                        1
                      • CarlosZambrana

                        SEO time

                        I wanto to be in the top of the google search. I am usiing a lot of SEO tools but... I have done it  during one month. Do I have to wait more?

                        Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Mar 27, 2015, 5:47 AM | CarlosZambrana
                        0
                      • Atomicx

                        Yoast seo title question

                        I was referred to this plugin and have found it to be the most irritating and poorly designed plugin in the world. I want to be able to set my titles without it changing my page headers as well. For instance - If I set my title to be "This is my article name | site name" it will make my H1 tag read the same. I do not want or desire this nonsense. Why would they think this is something wise? Why would I want my site name on every single H1 tag on my site? How can I fix this? I only want my title to be my title. I want my H1 tag to remain the post/page name that I define in wordpress.

                        Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Jan 29, 2015, 7:06 PM | Atomicx
                        0
                      • Cyclone

                        Is it better to use geo-targeted keywords or add the locations as separate keywords?

                        For example... state keyword (nyc real estate) or keyword, state (nyc, real estate) = 2 keywords Thanks in advance!

                        Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Sep 20, 2012, 6:12 PM | Cyclone
                        0
                      • bronxpad

                        Domain expiration and seo

                        My domain name is free with my service with yahoo but it expires every year and gets extended automatically as I continue service, how does this impact my seo efforts? I've heard that the search engines prefer sites to expire in 3 years or more? Is this a fact?

                        Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Jun 17, 2012, 7:04 PM | bronxpad
                        0
                      • salvyy

                        Exact keyword URL or not?

                        Hi all, I have a quick question about the proper use of permalinks. Let's say that I have a website about sports and I want to create an internal page dedicated to shoes. I know that the keyword "shoe" has 15.000 monthly visits, while the keyword "shoes" has 1.000 monthly visits. How do I have to name the internal page? http://www.example.com/shoe or http://www.example.com/shoes (with a final 's')? I would think that by naming the URL http://www.example.com/shoes, the search engine would consider that page for the keywords "shoe" and "shoes", but I am not sure about it. Should I create a URL that only focuses on one specific keyword ("shoe", in this example) or a URL that may encompass more than one keyword ("shoe" and "shoes")? I hope this is clear. Thank you for your time and help. All best, Sal

                        Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Mar 14, 2012, 9:20 PM | salvyy
                        0
                      • arching

                        Multiple Keyword Research Questions, Help

                        Hello , I've been trying for several days to understand how keyword research works for a multi purpose website,I've read guides, articles even some chapters from the book" The Art of Seo" by O'Reilly and still no luck. It seems i can't wrap my head around keyword research,lets say I have a social gaming community website and I'm trying to rank it first on some low competition keywords + some long tail keywords.The website has functions like leaderboards, profiles,events, competitions,etc so it's not actually a news related website but it will have a blog. My website being on the games niche It would imply that I should target words that contain the word "Games" but this word generates millions of searches globally so ranking first its nearly impossible if the website is brand new. This made me pursue generic keywords formed with 2 / 3 words like fresh games, new games, mmorpg games, fps games,etc which still generate lets say 30.000 searches globally each. Due to the different areas of the website like latest game events,latest games competitions,etc I'm confused If i should pursue website specific keywords like latest games events, fresh games events, latest games competitions, upcoming games competitions but these too generate 30.000 global searches each,so... 0.should i use generic keywords or keywords that include site features? So let's say I decide to pursue generic "games" keywords,due to a high competition based on the keyword I decide to go a layer deeper and for the keyword "fresh games" I obtain keywords like** "fresh games 2011,top fresh games 2011, upcoming fresh games** " and thus building a list of 30 keywords that contain " fresh games".If i do this for the rest of the keywords: ** new games, mmorpg games, fps games,etc**  I end up with a list of 10.000 keywords or more since each keyword generates other keywords. Is this the correct approach ? since generating 10.000 keywords sounds a lot and I'm getting the feeling that It's not how it supposed to be done,like were would I insert 10.000 keywords? So how do I know which keywords to pick and aim in order to try to get no.1 ranking? and why those? How many keywords should I use? and where should i put them? since it's not a news website so writing a lot of articles isn't an option. Should I focus on 2 words keywords with around 10.000-30.000 seaches or 2 words keywords + long tail keywords with less traffic like 100 - 5000? Is there a guide for the Keyword Analysis Tool since if i enter "fresh new games" i get a 39% keyword difficulty,is that hard to rank? and I don't know what all those color mean since some of them have higher numbers then others that are found at the top and how can i get beat a website that has has rank 10. So hopefully with your help & by some miracle I will finally be able to build a keyword list. Thank you !

                        Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Aug 3, 2011, 6:48 PM | arching
                        0

                      Get started with Moz Pro!

                      Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                      Start my free trial
                      Products
                      • Moz Pro
                      • Moz Local
                      • Moz API
                      • Moz Data
                      • STAT
                      • Product Updates
                      Moz Solutions
                      • SMB Solutions
                      • Agency Solutions
                      • Enterprise Solutions
                      Free SEO Tools
                      • Domain Authority Checker
                      • Link Explorer
                      • Keyword Explorer
                      • Competitive Research
                      • Brand Authority Checker
                      • Local Citation Checker
                      • MozBar Extension
                      • MozCast
                      Resources
                      • Blog
                      • SEO Learning Center
                      • Help Hub
                      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                      • How-to Guides
                      • Moz Academy
                      • API Docs
                      About Moz
                      • About
                      • Team
                      • Careers
                      • Contact
                      Why Moz
                      • Case Studies
                      • Testimonials
                      Get Involved
                      • Become an Affiliate
                      • MozCon
                      • Webinars
                      • Practical Marketer Series
                      • MozPod
                      Connect with us

                      Contact the Help team

                      Join our newsletter
                      Moz logo
                      © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                      • Accessibility
                      • Terms of Use
                      • Privacy

                      Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.