Can't get my preferred URL, how much does it matter?
-
Hi guys.
I'm building a new site at the moment - seen a solid SEO opportunity for my work. I'm a producer engineer, specialising in mixing and mastering, so i'm creating a site for online mixing services.
After a bit of keyword research I decided that "online mixing" was the best, most relevant and high volume term to go for. Ideally i'd like my home page to be www.onlinemixing.com (or something similar) but alas! It's been taken, as well as all the variations (like switching words, hypens etc)
How much does this matter form an SEO point of view?
E.g - For the search term "online mixing" would - www.onlinemixing-signalchain.co.uk be much worse than -www.onlinemixing.co.uk? Or am I sweating the small stuff?
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Isaac.
-
Thanks so much guys, really helpful.
Will a 301 pass this "age trust", or any other trust factors? I'm moving over from a long establish domain, about 4 years old. It's a flash site though, so i want to convert to something more SEO friendly. Also how long does it take to gain trust?
Got some high quality backlinks (only about 20 but very relevant). The 301 will help pass the "link juice" right?
Cheers.
Isaac.
-
Agreed with the the last submission. The largest challenge for you to gain traction in rankings will be the age of the domain when compared to long-established businesses because of the trust factor.
http://searchengineland.com/ranking-the-seo-ranking-factors-10890
Best of Luck.
-
Hi
From an SEO point of view, Google reduce the important of keyword in the URL so having the keyword in the URL doesn't have as much of a factor as it once did. Again a lot of research and even Matt Cutts has confirmed its not as high as ranking factor as it once was.
I would never ever put a hyphen in the URL, there has been many tests show it does impact rankings (might have once been a whiteboard friday), but it not there have been multiple experiments, all showing that hypthen in the domain name is bad.
This is a must read, its a bit old (2007), but its very relevant http://moz.com/blog/how-to-choose-the-right-domain-name
Hope all this is useful
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
-
Does Google penalize you for reindexing multiple URLS?
Hello, Just a quick, question! I was wanting to know if multiple page indexing (site overhaul) could cause a drop in organic traffic ranking or be penalized by Google for submitting multiple pages at one time. Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | InternetRep0 -
City Name in URL structure
I have a client whose site was built when they only served one market, and they now have that city in the majority of their URLs. I'm suggesting we redo the URL structure to remove this location from the main URLs (think homepage, about, etc.) since they have now expanded to three markets. They are seeing a lot of great organic traffic in that original market but are struggling in the new ones they've added so I'm helping to optimize their site. How critical do you think that removing that location from the URL is? I know we would need to implement 301 redirects, but wanted to get thoughts on this.
On-Page Optimization | | maghanlinchpinsales0 -
Placement of key words in URL
I notice that the MOZ Page Grader considers "/keyword1/keyword2-keyword3" in a URL string to be less effective than "/keyword1-keyword2-keyword3". Is this correct from Google's perspective? If I am trying to maximise my SEO for the page title "Business building tips", for example, does Google think my URL is more relevant if it's in the form: 1. www.website.com/business-building-tips
On-Page Optimization | | Gavin.Atkinson
2. www.website.com/business/building-tips or
3. www.website.com/business/business-building-tips My instinct tells me 3 is more powerful, but logic tells me if I have a whole section devoted to "business" and one of those pages is "business building tips" then 2 should work just as well, possibly better?0 -
Hiding body copy with a 'read more' drop down option
Hi I just want to confirm how potentially damaging using java script to hide lots of on page body copy with a 'read more' button is ? As per other moz Q&A threads i was told that best not to use Javascript to do this & instead "if you accomplish this with CSS and collapsible/expandable <DIV> tags it's totally fine" so thats what i advised my clients dev. However i recently noticed a big drop in rankings aprox 1 weeks after dev changing the body copy format (hiding alot of it behind a 'read more' button) so i asked them to confirm how they did implement it and they said: "done in javascript but on page load the text is defaulting to show" (which is contrary to my instructions) So how likely is it that this is causing problems ? since coincides with ranking drop OR if text is defaulting to show it should be ok/not cause probs ? And should i request that they redo as originally instructed (css & collapsible divs) asap ? All Best Dan
On-Page Optimization | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
URL question
When we type in the URL of www.JustBunkBeds.com on firefox we end up with (S) in URL https://www.justbunkbeds.com/ When we type in the URL of www.JustBunkBeds.com on Explorer we end up with http://www.justbunkbeds.com/ Appreciate answer to this question Tony
On-Page Optimization | | OCFurniture0 -
Long URL's
So I'm super new at SEO and learning a lot. I'm a small business owner and enjoy doing it myself. Are long URL's good or bad? Like this: http://www.farnorthkennel.com/german-shepherd-puppies-the-girls/long-haired-german-shepherd-puppies-lava Is that too long? The german-shepherd-puppies-the-girls is an actual page with actual content. Do those hurt me?
On-Page Optimization | | Joshlaska0 -
How can I find these pages?
Hi there! the SEOMOZ software has shown some warnings related to two pages that I can't locate in my WP plattform http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/contacto/estrella/ http://www.tarifakitesurfcamp.com/equipo/equis Any ideas? Many Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | juanmiguelcr0 -
Search engine friendly URLs
I'm going to create some new content for my site, I'm trying to decide on the best search engine friendly format. Namely, is it ok to use a subdirectory or should I keep all content on root level? Is the SEO effect of either of these URLs superior to the other? domain.com/cooking/lasagna.php vs domain.com/lasagna.php
On-Page Optimization | | limens0