Impact of Non-English target keywords in URL
-
Hi all, our site language is Farsi (Persian) so at first we tried to create URLs that contain our target keywords in Farsi too. The problem with this approach is that our URLs are not shown in a friendly style anymore: a bunch of unicode numeric codes instead of Farsi characters. Do you know which is the best approach? 1. Creating ugly looking URLs containing Farsi keywords 2. Forget about putting our keywords in URLs and have nice English URLs Thanks in advance for your time and help
-
Given the current state of the Internet (with the shorteners you've mentioned, etc) I would suggest to use English characters so a maximum amount of people can read the URL.
-
Hi Theo, thanks for reply. The site is for local business and handling unicode URLs by browsers is not problem.
The problem is when we want to share the URL somewhere (in a directory service) it looks like very ugly! Also since I couldn't find any URL shortener that support non-english characters for customization then our URLs for tweet can't have keywords too.
What is your opinion? Keep up with Farsi characters in URL?
Thanks
-
This depends on quite some factors, most importantly if this is a local site targeting only the Farsi language or it is an international site written in Farsi?
If this site is local, then having Farsi keywords in your URL (which should be displayed properly in most modern browsers these days if I recall correctly) might boost both your CTR from the SERPs and possibly even your rankings (though I must admit this is just a hunch and I don't have any data to support the ranking hypothesis).
On the other hand if the site is international, I would certainly go for the English URLs. Using them would enable a vastly greater amount of people to be able to actually read and understand the keywords in the URL, causing for example a higher CTR from the SERPs. Even if your site is local, but occasionally has international visitors, I would probably still go for the English characters to help both search engines and human visitors understand the contents of that page better.
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
-
URL Parameters
Hi Moz Community, I'm working on a website that has URL parameters. After crawling the site, I've implemented canonical tags to all these URLs to prevent them from getting indexed by Google. However, today I've found out that Google has indexed plenty of URL parameters.. 1-Some of these URLs has canonical tags yet they are still indexed and live. 2- Some can't be discovered through site crawling and they are result in 5xx server error. Is there anything else that I can do (other than adding canonical tags) + how can I discover URL parameters indexed but not visible through site crawling? Thanks in advance!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bbop330 -
Does a non-canonical URL pass link juice?
Our site received a great link from URL A, which was syndicated to URL B. But URL B is canonicalized to URL A. Does the link on URL B pass juice to my site? (See image below for a visual representation of my question) zgbzqBy
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Choice1 -
Keyword not ranking but keyword within a phrase is?
Hi Guys, Google is not indexing the keyword ‘e liquid’ for www.cloudstix.com/e-liquid and it's driving me insane. I cannot understand why, can anyone please shed any light! -On page we have used variations e liquid, e-liquid, eliquid. -The e-liquid product pages are canonicaled to www.cloudstix.com/e-liquid. -3 other pages regarding e liquid were 301 redirected to the page passing good authority. I did this as I believed these pages conflicted as they seemed to target e-liquid. -‘e-liquid’ is being used as an anchor throughout the website pointing to www.cloudstix.com/e-liquid. -The ‘e liquid’ page has generally good authority PA 22, DA26. -The website has good anchor text linking to the site, all relative and e liquid related, along with brand links. Currently the keyword ‘e liquid’ brings up the home page www.cloudstix.com ranked 100+. What’s strange is the other terms relating to 'e liquid' bring up www.cloudstix.com/e-liquid for example: ‘e liquid uk’ ‘the best e liquid’ and ‘e liquid cloudstix’. Any ideas on what the problem may be. Would appreciate any advice on this. Thanks guys! Liam
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | One2OneDigital0 -
URL Formatting - Magento
Hi, We are working with a client on Mangento who URLs are formatting Google friendly eg; productname.html - as seen in site search in Google) but when you click the link to the site it is adding on #.VEWKQxbc754 (or similar) The site is also having some page indexing problems as well Thoughts? specific settings/Add on in magento?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Pure-SEO0 -
Will Canonical tag on parameter URLs remove those URL's from Index, and preserve link juice?
My website has 43,000 pages indexed by Google. Almost all of these pages are URLs that have parameters in them, creating duplicate content. I have external links pointing to those URLs that have parameters in them. If I add the canonical tag to these parameter URLs, will that remove those pages from the Google index, or do I need to do something more to remove those pages from the index? Ex: www.website.com/boats/show/tuna-fishing/?TID=shkfsvdi_dc%ficol (has link pointing here)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | partnerf
www.website.com/boats/show/tuna-fishing/ (canonical URL) Thanks for your help. Rob0 -
Can I Refine My Keyword List to Highlight Top (15) Keywords?
My client is wondering if I could provide him with a list of his site's 15 Top performing SEO keywords. However, based on the layout of everything I've used here on SEOMoz, I don't believe that's possible. Or, am i incorrect? Can you indeed come up with a list of Top (XX) SEO keywords for a given time period, for a campaign/website? Thanks ahead of time.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BrandLabs0 -
How to remove non-requested, non-desired backlinks
Dear Mosers, Before Penguin update we start a link back profile study about who and why are linking and we found hundred of garbage sites like these: http://rakeback-blogger.com/links/ http://personalinjuryattorney-fl.org/get-a-fl-personal-injury-attorney-instead-of-crying-over-spilt-milk and hundred more... They don't have contact form or email address, so what is the best way to remove our link from there (there are any quick way), these sites are damaging our rank. Thank you for your help Claudio
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SharewarePros0 -
Keyword-Rich Domains - Redirect?
Hi, Mozzers- I have a client that has a bunch of pretty nice keyword-rich domain names. Their traffic and rankings are good. They provide legal services in the Chicago area. I have lots of good content that I could use to start a blog using a domain like keyword,keyword-blog.com. Good idea? Currently I have a resources area on their website but feel like this area could be getting a little bloated and some news-related stuff isn't really appropriate. 2 Questions: Should I use one of the decent domains for a blog and build up the rankings, traffic, and link to the main site? Or is this lots of work for little payout? Both sites would be hosted in the cloud. Some of the domain names are related to their name, others are keyword or geo-targeted. Would it be wise to setup 301 redirects going to their website? Pros/cons? If you need additional info, please PM me for details. Thank you, friends! LHC
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | lhc670