Keyword in URL: Ranking Factor?

[JABacchetta]

I've got a site about a specific topic, which we'll call "themes" for the sake of this discussion. I personally like to keep the url structure short and clean (for usability purposes, but mainly because I'm a perfectionist and a minimalist).

I feel that adding "themes" to the url structure is a bit redundant. However, nearly every keyword phrase that my site should rank for includes the word "themes." So I'm wondering how much I'm handicapping myself by not including the keyword "themes" in the url?

The domain name itself sort of includes the keyword . . . although it's in Italian (I chose the domain for it's brand-ability, not for the keyword). A quick example:

My Url Structure: www.themo.com/topic/abc

My Competitor's Url Structure: www.sitesample.com/themes/topic/abc

For many of the keywords, the competitors with the keyword in the url rank highest. But, I'm not sure how much emphasis to place on this, because from my understanding Google doesn't pay as much attention to url keywords anymore . . . and those sites might just be ranking high because they've been around for so long (which also happens to be the reason why they coincidentally also include the keyword in the url, because they started the site when that was a high ranking factor).

Thoughts? Should I just trash my perfectionism and add the keyword to the url structure?

(By the way, the site is only a couple months old and doesn't have any significant backlinks to inner pages yet, so changing the url structure wouldn't be a big deal if I decided to do that).

[JABacchetta]

Thank you for this information Erwan. Exactly what I was looking for.

[Branden_S]

Wow Erwan,

Great info

[johnny122]

I made a test recently with the keyword "histoire de la bretagne" on google.fr; this keyword is interesting because it is not a commercial one and the links are not manipulated.

Please find the rankings results attached.

Results 1-4 = long articles (22 000 words for #1 wikipedia), high DA/PA

But result 5 = no article, low DA/PA but still outranking better pages because the keyword is in the domain name = <cite>centre-histoire-bretagne.com</cite>

Pages 6 to 10 are better; page 7 should be in top 3 in term of quality (original content with 20 000 words) but they don't have the exact keyword in their URL !

With no or few backlinks, you can outrank a better website if you have your keyword in domain name or close to it in URL.

Result 9 is a university with crazy backlinks, good alexa rank and some social engagement; but their website has 0 SEO; URL = bibnum.univ-rennes2.fr/items/show/336

In my opinion, Google still pay serious attention to URL keywords and you should optimize yours.

Hope this help!

photostream

[JABacchetta]

I don't need an audit for on-page optimization since I'm familiar with what should be done when sticking to the "rules" of SEO.

I'm basically trying to figure out how much benefit that keyword being in the url is going to have. In other words, am I going to have a hard time outranking my competitors for those keywords even if I have the better site?

[jeremycbray]

Hi,

I would advise you to do a site audit and have a look at your on page optimisation before making drastic changes,

In saying this your keyword in your url is of benefit.