URL Keyword Variations?
-
I'm aware that keywords in the url aren't as effective as they used to be, but I'm still convinced that they do have a significant impact (based on results in one of the niches I'm in).
My question is, will variations of keywords and "hidden" keywords have as much value as an exact keyword? For example, let's say that I'm trying to target the keyword "day." Will including variations like "daily" in the url work just as well? What about a brand name that includes the keyword hidden in its name, like "Dayest"?
And, as a followup question, does including "stop" words have any effect? For example, if I'm trying to target the keyword "Day of the Month", would including "day" and "month" in the url be just as effective as including "day of the month"?
-
I think this you're over-thinking it on this one personally. I think that if you simply write the URL based on what you think will be most useful to your visitor, without making it over-complicated that you'll be fine. If there is benefit to be had, having the keywords there in a simple manner will give you that benefit, but you'll be spinning wheels if you spend too much time on it.
I think you'd be fine cutting out words. We always cut unnecessary words out of the URL as you mentioned doing above simply to keep the URL's a bit shorter.
I know it's cliche, but if you write the URL so it make sense to the visitor, without being over-complicated and spammy, then I think that's the best way to get whatever strength may be available to be passed by "the google machine".
-
Chris,
Admittedly, I don't have any testing to backup my hunch. The only thing that I can say is that the entire first page of results are from urls that include the keyword in the url. Now, that might simply be because all of these sites were started long ago when keywords in the url had more of an impact, and since they're older sites, naturally they have more backlinks and rank the highest. I just find it odd that not one ranking site on the first page includes a url without the keyword.
You mention, "it's satisfactory to simply throw something keyword related in the url." So, let me ask a question with a more specific example. Let's say you were targeting the keyword "Quotes by Topic" . . . would the following url work since it has "quote" in the domain's brand name, even though the brand name isn't truly a dictionary word (and therefore Google might not pick up the word, "quote"?):
Or would you gain value by adding quotes in the url string? As follows:
-
JABcchetta,
I'm interested in knowing what convinces you of the ongoing significant impact of keywords in URLs in your niche when in most niches, it's satisfactory to simply throw something keyword related in the url and be off to spending time on other aspects of SEO. If you've done testing to that effect, it would certainly be valuable information for the rest of us.
I think that in most niches, the difference in value of using keywords in the various ways you describe is negligible. I'd recommend to keep up the testing and do some niche-specific verifications on which of your choices work best. As for the stop words, I never put any value in that concept.
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
-
Incorporating a difficult keyword in Headline
Hi ! I need to incorporate a password in a H1 Headline that is "Photography Freiburg" As "The best Photography Freiburg" would sound strange and would be grammatically incorrect I would write "The best Photography in Freiburg". Is this much worse concerning SEO? Or will Google still put a high correlation to the Searchterm "Photography Freiburg" ? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | RWW0 -
On Page Optimization, F on all keywords?
On our website we have all F's even though we have the targeted keyword in the title, url, meta desc, h1, body and some of the img alt's. They still show zero uses of the keyword. Are we missing something here or is this some kind of bug or glitch? Any help or advice is appreciated, Thanks. Keyword: 2015 Toyota Tundra Hilton Head Website: http://www.stokesbrowntoyotahiltonhead.com/2015-Toyota-Tundra-Hilton-Head-Serving-Savannah/
On-Page Optimization | | stokesautogroup0 -
Am I spamming my Keyword?
Hi All I am trying to rank my site for many key phrases but the pretty much always contain the word "Sussex" The biggy with a lot of competition is "Caterers Sussex" and similar variations when I view source on their page I find that Gastro catering's code uses "sussex" 92 times in it code. My site www.SussexChef.com uses the word "Sussex" 590 times, the competitors site mentions the word less in its code and is dominant for all my desirable key words. Am I spamming my keyword by using Sussex too often when naming my image file? Is there anything in this or am I barking up the wrong tree? Thanks for your help Ben
On-Page Optimization | | SussexChef830 -
Keyword at homepage
Hi there, this is the url of my homepage: http://www.sehaidoyamama.com/piensapiensa/ PiensaPiensa is not my keyword. I have selected a keyword to optimize the homepage. Does anyone know how to include the keyword in the url of the homepage? I tried to do it in the "pages" section of wordpress but I wasn't able to do it. The home page doesn't allow to change the url. Is it important to set up a keyowrd in the url of the homepage? Is it appropiate from the usability perspective? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | juanmiguelcr0 -
Meta Keywords
Hello! Just wondering what opinions others have on Meta Keywords? Ive read in the past here on Seomoz that they are irrelevant now to search engines. I do see some of our Large competitors still using them. When I use the SEO page tool to check out pages for optimization it recommends that we remove them? This is something that I have been doing for a few months now but am second guessing myself now. Should I continue to leave them out of current page structure? Thank You!!!!
On-Page Optimization | | TP_Marketing0 -
No Data Available for this URL
Hi,
On-Page Optimization | | ostiguyj
I really don't understand why I have this message "No data available for this URL"
in my SEOMOZ campain. (www.bienchezsoi.ca) When I look at my page rank, I get a score of 0 I have no idea of to fix it. Please help. Thanks0 -
Site-wide keyword density
A colleague of mine was saying that he has been able to get top ranking for a high traffic term by using variations of that head term on multiple pages that are associated with the main page. For example,he would optimize a landing page for the high traffic word "Construction." He would then build pages under this landing page that are optimized for variations of this word: "Construction facts," "Industrial Construction Companies," "Construction Resource Allocator" etc. His theory is that the subpages add credibility with spiders that the root page is the best for that root page. This doesn't seem like it would work, but I'm curious as to what other people think.
On-Page Optimization | | EricVallee340