Key Word in URL - To Include or Exclude?
-
Hi MoZ Community,
Key word inclusion in URL has been discussed a fair bit on here and curious for some feedback on two options on URL structure.
Ran’s #3 tip from his recent ‘15 SEO Best Practices for Structuring URLs’ states that key word inclusion still has some value but I’m not too sure if we’re going too far with the below examples.
We sell footwear and only footwear for Women, Men & Kids and use those words as our key menu headings at the top. Under each of the main headings within a mega menu the users then has the choice to ‘shop by style’, ‘shop by brand’ etc…
The key question or feedback is about including the word ‘shoes’ in my URLs as many of the top ranking competitors do it.
e.g. /women-shoes-heels, womens-shoes-sandals or womens-shoes/heels, womens-shoes/sandals
I think Google is smart enough to determine we have a shoe store and not sure of the value from a SEO or user experience perspective of adding the additional word.
Thoughts on going with option A or B would be valued....
Option A - http://shopname.com/womens/sandals, http://shopname.com/womens/heels OR
Option B - http://shopname.com/womens-shoes/sandals, http://shopname.com/womens-shoes/heels
Thanks,
| | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | || | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | | -
Be careful that you don't end up with multiple URLs for the same page...if you do want to go that way, then be sure to set a rel=canonical from one to the other.
I don't know about a click-through advantage. You might say that the brand stands out more and is more readable at the end of the URL, actually.
-
I'd agree with Aaron's comments on click through rate. I'd add that I'm still seeing a lot of boost in ranking from having the keywords in the URL itself, so I'd keep "shoes" in the page URLs.
-
from an SEO point of view, no it's not going to be a major factor.
From a user point of view its key and even more so because you don't have shoe in your domain name. I have uploaded an image below. See how I have typed women shoes and the URL bolds that keyword in the URL. It's key to have something which stands out from a click through rate.
A lot of people worry about getting to page one but they forget that you need people to click on your listing. if i was you I would go:
http://shopname.com/womens-shoes/sandals
From a user's point of view not a SEO point of view. Hope this helps.
-
Hi Aaron,
My domain name does not have shoes in the title.
When you say it won't play a major factor in the rankings are you referring to using the word 'shoe'.
If it's not going to influence much then I'd prefer to go shorter (option A) and use http://shopname/women/heels I'd only considering including 'shoes' if there was some SEO or visual click through advantage.
Just curious because most majors shoe sellers and competitors do actually use it but they could have set up their URL's many years ago and things have possibly changed.
Does mean they rank well simply because of that as I know there are other contributing factors.
-
I normally work out how it works in the site. E.g if your looking for heels you would do the following
Go to women shoes than heels
Yourshop.com/women-shoes/heels
From an SEO point of view it won't play a major factor in your rankings.
Also does your url have the word shoe in it. As this can play a factor from a user's point of view.
-
Option A for mind. Also hummingbird allows a bit more lateral, so if it is for young and hip perhaps...
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
-
Without slash URLs not redirected with slash URLs; but canonicalised: Any potential harm at Google?
Hi friends, Our website pages without slash are not redirecting to with slash and vice-versa. Both the versions are returning 200 response code. Both the versions are pointed to with slash URLs with rel-canonical tags. Is this right setup? Or we need to redirect one another to slash or without slash versions? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Ranking gone for the original page and a shortened url ranks instead.
Hi Experts!!! Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year In Advance. I am been facing a issue with a few of my SERP results for "Singapore Visa" and related keyword. Until last to last Saturday i.e 16th December, I ranked for Singapore visa keyword with this url https://in.musafir.com/Visa/singapore-visa.aspx !!! But since 18th December I am ranking for "Singapore Visa" keyword with this url and message below it in place of description. Singapore visa - Musafir.com
Algorithm Updates | | sainath
go.musafir.com/Singapore-visa
No information is available for this page.
Learn why The go.musafir.com/Singapore-visa redirects to https://in.musafir.com/Visa/singapore-visa.aspx with some UTM parameters. The URL go.musafir.com/Singapore-visa is a shortened URL which was used for SMS marketing and all of a sudden Google has picked it in SERP instead of Singapore VIsa Landing Page. The Singapore visa Main page is not blocked by Robots.txt file. Please help me to resolve this.1 -
Why do some URLs display in the SERPS with > seperators between subfolders, and others display with a /
Why do some URLs display like this: cargurus.com › Used Cars › Jeep Wrangler and others display like https://www.carmax.com/cars/jeep/wrangler Is there a significance to having the sub folders separated with an arrow vs a backslash?
Algorithm Updates | | Brian_Owens_10 -
Duplicate pages in language versions, noindex in sitemap and canonical URLs in sitemap?
Hi SEO experts! We are currently in the midst of reducing our amount of duplicate titles in order to optimize our SEO efforts. A lot of the "duplicate titles" come from having several language versions of our site. Therefore, I am wondering: 1. If we start using "" to make Google (and others) aware of alternative language versions of a given site/URL, how big a problem will "duplicate titles" then be across our domains/site versions? 2. Is it a problem that we in our sitemap include (many) URL's to pages that are marked with noindex? 3. Are there any problems with having a sitemap that includes pages that includes canonical URL's to other pages? Thanks in advance!
Algorithm Updates | | TradingFloor.com0 -
Is having an identical title, h1 and url considered "over optimization"? Is it better to vary?
To get some new pages out without over-thinking things, I decided to line up the title tag, h1 tag and URLs of my pages exactly. They are dynamically generated based on the content the user is viewing (internal search results pages) They're not ranking very well at the moment, but there are a number of factors that are likely to blame. But, in particular, does anyone know if varying the text in these elements tends to perform better vs. having them all identical? Has there been any information from Google about this? Most if not all of the "over optimization" content I have seen online pertains to backlinks, not on-page content. It's easy to say, "test it!" And of course, that's just what I'm planning to do. But I thought I would leverage the combined knowledge of this forum to see what information I could obtain first, so I can do some informed testing, as tests can take a while to see results. Thanks 🙂
Algorithm Updates | | ntcma0 -
Should we use brand name of product in URL
Hi all, What is best for SEO. We sell products online. Is it good to mention the brand in the product detail page URL key if (part of) the brand is also in the home url? So our URL is: www.brandXstore.com Is it best to do: www.brandXstore.com/brandX-productA.html of just do: www.brandXstore.com/ProductA.html Thanks for quick answering 😉
Algorithm Updates | | RetailClicks1 -
How can the same key term change positioning seasonally impacting some companies and not others?
The company I do SEO work for is a vacation rental company. Through research, reports, and crunching numbers I've discovered the seasonality of the buiness (when what we do is a popular search and when it is not). The problem I've encountered is that our average position for google seems to follow this exact same seasonality, but only for us. What I mean is, as the season for looking up vacation rentals in our area fades away we take a serious nose dive in our positioning, yet when the season comes back we once again are first page. The other interesting fact is this isn't happening to the other companies who are in the same area. How can the same key term change positioning seasonally like that and impact some companies and not others? Can you give me some insights into where to at least look or pursue? I should have started with you guys, but I had so far spent 4 months trying to get answers and so far I've come up with nothing more than guesses and frustration. Please help me.
Algorithm Updates | | SSRMarketing0 -
How do you determine if Google thinks you’re guilty of Key Word Stuffing?
I believe that Google sees our website: www.getyourphotosoncanvas.com/
Algorithm Updates | | rdominey
as being guilty of keyword stuffing. I don’t see any specific tools on SEOmoz
that will evaluate Keyword Density as viewed by Google. Just to be clear; I have not attempted to use KWS as a SEO tactic. I feel that the
content of each page is written for the customer. I do realize that Google may
see it differently. I think that I am being penalized for the use of the words
Photo and Canvas. My domain name is “GetYourPhotosonCanvas.com” The business
name is “Get Your Photos on Canvas”, the website title is “Get Your Photos on Canvas”, and each page of our website talks about Photos and Canvas. I have tried to
vary the use of Photo with Pictures, Photographs, Prints, Digital Images and so
on. It is difficult to vary the word Canvas. I guess according to Google this paragraph
would be guilt of Keyword Stuffing! I have conducted some tests on other SEO site tools and some indicate that KWS is
a problem on my website. If you search a specific page title that contains either Photo or Canvas it does
not rank in the top 200 on Google, although it is #1 or #2 on Yahoo or Bing. Drop those two Keywords and the page shows up
as #2 on Google. I think that is a good indication that we are being penalized
for KWS. Pease take a look at our website and give me your opinion/advice regarding the Key
Word Stuffing Issue. Do I need to rewrite my site content for Google?0