Redirect the main site to keyword-rich subfolder / specific page for SEO
-
Hi,
I have two questions.Question 1: is it worthwhile to redirect the main site to keyword-rich subfolder / specific page for SEO? For example, my company's webpage is www.example.com. Would it make sense to redirect the main site to address www.example.com/service-one-in-certain-city ? I am asking this as I have learned that it is important for SEO to have keywords in the URL, and I was thinking that we could do this and include the most important keywords to the subfolder / specific URL. What are the pros and cons and how important is it to include keywords to folders and page URLs. Should I create folders or pages just the sake of keywords?
Question 2: Most companies have their main URL shown as www.example.com when you access their domain. However, some multi-language sites show e.g. www.example.com/en or www.example.com/en/main when you type the domain to your web browser to access the site. I undertstand that this is a common practice to use subdomains or folders to separate the language versions.
My question is regarding the subfolder. Is it better to have only the subfolder shown (www.example.com/en) or should you also include the specific page's URL after the subfolder with keywords (www.example.com/en/main or www.example.com/en/service-one-in-certain-city)? I don't really understand why some companies show only the subfolder of a specific language page and some the page's URL after the subfolder.
Thanks in advance,
Sam
-
Hi SamuEU,
In general it is not good to have your home page be redirecting anywhere else on your website, often times spammy websites use re-directs to take users to a different page they may be hiding from search bots. I would suggest creating the new keyword-relevant URL, but also creating an entirely new keyword-relevant page to gain traffic directly from the search-engines, then link to it in a way that makes sense from your home page. This is a more natural way to use a keyword-relevant URL to gain search traffic.
Good Luck!
-
Hello SamuEU,
-
Just creating folders or pages for the sake of keywords is useless thing to do solely for ranking, unless it helps with categorization for example, shop.com/shoes/nike/
-
en.blog.com vs blog.com/en/ work the same way, If you are moving sites, its a bit easier to move a blog/en/ site you dont have to deal with subdomains.
Another thing to consider generally the closer the page is to the domain tends to rank more. All else equal:
shop.com/nike/ will tend to rank higher than shop/clothes/shoes/nike/ but its a small factor again if categories are needed and make sense go with categories.
Hope this helps
-
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
-
301 redirection problem - Major lose of ranking in Google Search results
301 redirection problem - Major lose of ranking in Google Search results
International SEO | | AviramAdar
(site was almost completely removed from google search results) Hello,
I had a website ('DayUse' style) with the following url:
https://www.roomsindex.co.il/ Couple of days ago, I've made a 301 redirection to:
https://www.hour.co.il/ The redirection was made on 2 levels:
1. Server side- on htaccess file.
2. Google Search Console - Change of address page. Bare in mind the following things: The site's structure (url addresses) & the code hasn't changed (for sure). Both redirections are 100% valid (for sure). All the website pages were indexed (for sure). There isn't a penalty on any of the above domains (for sure). The website was almost completely removed from Google search results. For example: Before the redirection the website was ranked 10 in my main keyword "Rooms by hour" (translation from Hebrew), now the website removed. Also, the website removed from almost all the search terms it was ranked before. My question is, off course, WHY???
By the details on the following page, a proper 301 redirection shouldn't cause to such page ranking loss (As I mentioned- It almost completely disappeared)... https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6033049?utm_source=wnc_807001&utm_medium=gamma&utm_campaign=wnc_807001&utm_content=msg_914100&hl=en-IL search-console-change-of-address.png0 -
International Targeting: What Does Google Consider an Equivalent Page?
Hi All, We are working with an international brand that owns several domains across the EU and in North America. Our team is in the process of setting up international targeting using sitemaps to indicate alternate language pages. This is being done to prevent North American pages from being served in the UK, Spain pages from being served in Portugal, or any other combination of possibilities... Currently we are mapping duplicate or “equivalent” pages and defining them as rel="alternate" on their respective sitemaps. The problem is, it’s not always explicitly clear what Google considers “equivalent.” 1. In this instance, URL structures vary by domain,
International SEO | | MetaPaul
2. in most cases the content is similar (but unique),
3. the landing page templates vary is design and functionality,
4. and lastly, services often contain nuances that make them slightly different from one another (Professional Liability Insurance vs Professional Indemnity Insurance). All things considered, these pages are offering the same service, but are vastly different (see above). Q: Is it appropriate to use these attributes to serve the correct language / regional URL to searchers? Q: Is there a rule of thumb on what should be considered an "equivalent" page? Thanks All, Paul3 -
Language Usage for SEO in Hong Kong
Hi guys, I was wondering if you could help me with an SEO query for language usage in Hong Kong? Specifically, I'm aware that in mainland China it's preferred to use simplified Chinese. However, in Hong Kong, if you want to rank well in Google and Yahoo! HK, should you be use traditional or simplified Chinese in your web content? Any guidance would be much appreciated.
International SEO | | ecommercebc0 -
Wordpress SEO/ Ecommerce , Site with Multiple Domains ( International ) & Canonical URLs
Hi I have an ecommerce site with an integrated wordpress instance. I want to have one wordpress site that outputs to 2 domains exactly the same content , but one will have canonical URL . NZ & Australia Sites. So: Would I use the rel="Alternate" hreflang="en-nz" . I want the same content to rank well for each country and not be penalised for duplicate content. Ideas?
International SEO | | s_EOgi_Bear0 -
If I redirect based on IP will Google still crawl my international sites if I implement Hreflang
We are setting up several international sites. Ideally, we wouldn't set up any redirects, but if we have to (for merchandising reasons etc) I'd like to assess what the next best option would be. A secondary option could be that we implement the redirects based on IP. However, Google then wouldn't be able to access the content for all the international sites (we're setting up 6 in total) and would only index the .com site. I'm wondering whether the Hreflang annotations would still allow Google to find the International sites? If not, that's a lot of content we are not fully benefiting from. Another option could be that we treat the Googlebot user agent differently, but this would probably be considered as cloaking by the G-Man. If there are any other options, please let me know.
International SEO | | Ben.JD0 -
How to handle rel canonical on secondary TLD's - multi regional sites.
I currently have a .com domain which I am think of duplicating the content on to another tld, CO.UK (and regionalize some aspects like contact numbers etc). From my research, it seems that in gwt you must then indicate which country you wish to target, in the co.uk case the UK. My question is how should I handle rel canonical in the duplicated site. should it rel canonical back to the .com or the co.uk? Any other pointers would also be appreciated. Thx
International SEO | | dmccarthy0 -
International SEO Question with regards to Sub Folders in Webmaster Tools
So, we have a website in 18 or so different languages. bluewidgets.com/br bluewidgets.com/cn etc I have added each sub folder in Google Webmaster Tools and 'pointed' them to be at their respective geographic specific. However, the United States version of the website is sitting on the root domain. Is there any issue with me pointing the root domain at United States Google, considering there are 18 sub folders already pointed at different regions?
International SEO | | LukeyJamo0 -
Anchor text for international SEO
HI I am looking to rank sites in multiple foreign search engines. I am thinking about the anchor text strategies I need to employ. My key phrase: golfschläger (golf club) I am targeting a German page (written in German). Would Google understand that if I use the anchor text “golf club” to my German “golfschläger” page, it is infact the same word and therefore give anchor text benefits to that page, or for anchor text benefits to pass does the anchor text have to be in the same language? thanks for any help!!!!
International SEO | | Turkey0