301 redirect and then keywords in URL

[BobGW]

Hi,

Matt Cutts says that 301 redirects, including the ones on internal pages, causes the loss of a little bit of link juice.

But also, I know that keywords in the URL are very important.

On our site, we've got unoptimized URLs (few keywords) in the internal pages.

Is it worth doing a 301 redirect in order to optimize the URLs for each main page. 301 redirects are the only way we can do it on our premade cart

For example (just an example) say our main (1 of the 4) keywords for the page is "brown shoes".

I'm wondering if I should redirect something like

shoes.com/shoecolors.html

to

shoes.com/brown-shoes.html

In other words, with the loss of juice would we come out ahead? In what instances would we come out ahead?

[BobGW]

Awesome, yes Matt Cutts in that video does imply what you are saying. I also agree with higher CTR (another thing I hadn't thought of!)

Ryan, this is great. Thank you.

[RyanKent]

The closest thing I could find is the below Matt Cutts video. At 40 seconds in Matt specifically states that when using a URL shortener like Bit.ly the URL anchor text and PR will flow through the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMkltd6dZzU

Even if anchor text did not flow through URL links I would still focus on having user friendly URLs. User CTR is higher on a page with a friendly title versus a page with a bunch of numbers that are otherwise meaningless.

Also, we have limited control over how users link to us. We prefer they use good anchor text but for those who simply copy and paste your URL there isn't much that can be done so it's kind of a moot point.

[KeriMorgret]

If you're going to redo your URLs, you might look at this post by Lunametrics about Google Analytics friendly sites. It offers a few things to think about so your URLs can also provide you value in your analytics.

http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2010/09/22/designing-google-analytics-friendly-site/

[BobGW]

Hi Ryan,

I know that anchor text is really important. In my career I've used anchor text such as, if one of the four keywords on a page was "Brown Shoes" then the link would look like

Brown Shoes

for the best anchor text, but I didn't know that

http://www.zappos.com/brown-shoes

also helped by providing anchor text for "brown shoes" As you said, many times people just use the URL, and I didn't know that Google would separate the URL into pieces and give weight to "brown" and "shoes" since it's in the URL.

In my experience, there's been quite a bit of difference in anchor text between

brown shoe

and

brown shoes

where an exact match is important, and I thought the keywords in the anchor text had to be just words (with spaces) and it is new to me that the URL string works too.

I can see that Google might want to do that, is there any documentation on this? It's OK if there's not.

[rhutchings]

I second all the comments below.  That should give you enough professional consensus in this arena to head in the right direction.   Redirect with teh keywords, and this will have the best long-term results.

As for Google parsing keywords out of urls or anything else...  You will need to remember that for the most part google ignores special characters and parameters in both content and urls.  It doesnt matter if the url is in a link or the actual url bar up top, google will treat it the same.  Google knows its a url string, and applies its "url parsing logic" to it.  So it only makes sense that a full url link would be parsed, just the same way your website url is parsed because it includes the keywords.   Its the same logic.

[RyanKent]

I would be happy to supply supporting evidence on any point.

I am a bit unclear on what you are requesting. You want to see documentation that the use of anchor text offers a SEO value?

[BobGW]

Hi Ryan,

I see what you mean about the technology extensions, I'll avoid them from here on out.

As to the anchor text, I didn't know that Google parsed the anchor text like it does a URL to extract keywords. You are an excellend SEO, so I'd like to just take your word for it, but could you give me more understanding of how keywords in anchor text works just like keywords in URL (parsing the "-" and "/") or a link to a Matt Cutts video that implies this (I just searched and didn't find one).

I can't just take your word for it, even though you're an amazing SEO, since I've found that many advanced SEOs are wrong on a few details (though I think you are great)

Thanks again, this is invaluable information

[RyanKent]

There are a few reasons for not using technology extensions with urls (i.e. html, htm, php, etc)

• any time you use a redirect there is work involved for you, the server has to check incoming URLs against the list of 301s, etc. They are a normal part of online life, but their use should be minimized. There is a high likelihood you may decide to upgrade your site which would change your .html pages to .php pages. Your URL would be identical except the extension, which would require a 301 for your whole site.

• any time a 301 is used there is a loss of link authority

• the extension is not helpful to users and makes your URLs appear more complex and possibly confusing to users

• a site that shows their extensions is making things easier for anyone who wishes to attack your site. Sure it's a small item, but good security is about taking all the steps you can to make things more difficult for attackers.

With respect to the URL, Google fully understands and adjusts for the slash and dashes in URLs.

how you know it works?

It's fundamental to the concept of anchor text. Take a look at the below two links:

a great site

http://www.seomoz.org/

Both of the above links lead to the same place, the SEOmoz home page. What varies is the anchor text. Google is a multi-billion dollar company. They understand to remove the http:// prefix along with the .org/ suffix.

There are many discussions and resources on this topic. One relevant video from Matt Cutts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRzMhlFZz9I

[BobGW]

Ryan,

I am very impressed by your comments. I've been doing this a long time and I never thought of that.

So if someone's anchor tet is www.shoes.com/brown-sandles

and my keyword is brown sandles

then google will see "brown" and "sandles" even though there is a "/" and an "-" in there too? Could you go into detail about this, and how you know it works?

Also, what is the reasoning besides keeping the .html off of the end of the keyword rich URL?

Again, amazing advice.

[RyanKent]

A couple thoughts to add...

A primary reason keywords in your URL are so important is primarily due to their anchor text value. Yes Google will offer a boost but what amplifies this factor is the fact that most links to your site will include the keyword. People can be lazy and lack knowledge, so they link to your site simply by copying and pasting the URL rather then using anchor text. When that happens the URL is the anchor text. So if your domain is shoes.com then every URL link to your site includes "shoes" in it.

Having keywords deeper in your URL is very helpful for several reasons, but they will never match the power of having them in your root URL.

Also, if you are going to restructure your site I strongly recommend you use technology-free URLs. Remove the .html from the end of your URLs.

[danrawk]

hi -
i've been through this and can offer a few suggestions:
1.) see if your server can use some sort of rewrite program like isapi rewrite. you can create code to have the page rewrite the url to what you want.
2.) consider moving to a new ecommerce platform (scary, i know) and then using 301's from your old stuff to your new stuff. any ecommerce vendor that is not using seo friendly product url's in 2011 does not deserve your business. if they aren't doing that chances are they may also be behind on such things as pci compliance, security, and general features.

good luck!

[danrawk]

hi -
i've been through this and can offer a few suggestions:
1.) see if your server can use some sort of rewrite program like isapi rewrite. you can create code to have the page rewrite the url to what you want.
2.) consider moving to a new ecommerce platform (scary, i know) and then using 301's from your old stuff to your new stuff. any ecommerce vendor that is not using seo friendly product url's in 2011 does not deserve your business. if they aren't doing that chances are they may also be behind on such things as pci compliance, security, and general features.

good luck!

[sferrino]

The amount of juice you will lose will be made up in the long run by having the keyword in the page name.SEO should be a long-term goal, and having the keyword in the page name is the best situation.

I have, and would recommend, doing it.