keywords in url for google not so important?

[Callme]

Ive read somewhere, maybe here that keywords in the url are not so important for google ranking but are for yahoo?
Is this true?
IM so new to this! Id love to know in a few words ( if anyone one would be so kind) whats the most important thing to have sorted for good SEO? keyword density? inbound links?

[thindenim]

I'm of the opinion that it does help, but it's only a small percentage of the overall algorithm.

One advantage of having your target keyphrase as your domain name is it makes it easier to build links with the anchor text you want.

[incrediblehelp]

Doesnt really matter at all from my perspective. You can just browse the SERPs and see this.

[janeth]

As stated above, about the only help would be in building links to your site.

Although I think MSN likes them. But myself, I'd rather go with a name I could live with. Never know when the search engines will change or become less relevant.

[crankydave]

Anything that a SE considers is important IMO. How important is another matter.

Most important thing for SEO?

I personally can't pick a single thing as "most important". Everything is important. But if I were to lean in a single direction as far as both SE's and visitors were concerned I'd say structure/navigation.

Dave

[DrTandem1]

Domain names are for people. There are plenty of sites at the top of the SERPs for their chosen keyword(s) that don't have them in their domain name. Make the name easy to remember and spell because it's for people.

[flyingspider]

Some people like to sleep on a bed without a pillow. If sleeping on a pillow allows you to sleep better, than use it. In our case, I have seen nothing but great results from URL with the keyword in it.

You have two choices:

1. buy a domain with the keyword in it
2. buy a generic domain and name the webpage using the keyword that you're trying to optimize for

Here's an excellent example of a webpage with strong IBL (in bound links) and it's using a keyword rich webpage: diet pills - Google Search

The #1 listing has been dominating that keyword for about 5 years now. Still think its not worth it? Follow their strategy and succeed in Google and other search engines.

[hyperdog]

We've seen good results with keywords in the URL, if no reason other than to entice searchers to click your search listing. Human visitors are becoming better at ignoring spam in search engine results, and are looking to important clues in your listing. Keywords in metadescriptions, titles and URLs get clicks. Along those lines, we just blogged this morning:
9 Tips: Treat your SEO like a PPC Campaign

As for the actual questions, I think inbound link anchor text and titles are the most important SEO elements to worry about - as long as you don't have any barriers to the googlebot accessing your site (like javascript only navigation, etc.)

[StevenRB]

The original poster simply mentioned keywords in the "URL."

In my mind, that's not just the domain name.

The "Diet Pills" example given above is, in fact, a case of a top result with the keywords in the URL (as well as all the other good things mentioned in that post and others).

[dburdon]

Callme,

your basic thesis is correct. URLs are not so important for Google but do play a more important role with Yahoo. However, in more competitive categories so many other things come into play - branding particularly - that I wouldn't be driven by the tld.

[Jon-WebsiteCM]

In my google results dietpills.com ranks #3

[rdynek]

Originally Posted by flyingspider

Some people like to sleep on a bed without a pillow. If sleeping on a pillow allows you to sleep better, than use it. In our case, I have seen nothing but great results from URL with the keyword in it.

You have two choices:

1. buy a domain with the keyword in it
2. buy a generic domain and name the webpage using the keyword that you're trying to optimize for

Here's an excellent example of a webpage with strong IBL (in bound links) and it's using a keyword rich webpage: diet pills - Google Search

The #1 listing has been dominating that keyword for about 5 years now. Still think its not worth it? Follow their strategy and succeed in Google and other search engines.

My question is how would someone acquire that many IBL without Reciprocating links? I was under the impression that any inbound that were not exchanged with reciprocating links was just frowned upon as purchased traffic or such.

[morestar]

Originally Posted by crankydave

Anything that a SE considers is important IMO. How important is another matter.

Most important thing for SEO?

I personally can't pick a single thing as "most important". Everything is important. But if I were to lean in a single direction as far as both SE's and visitors were concerned I'd say structure/navigation.

Dave

Yes...everything is important and having keywords in your domain name is surely to help and give you some advantage...you won't ALWAYS get an advantage but if you play your cards right you can use it to your advantage...

SO USE IT

[sudhani]

In my opinion, the Keywords in URL will help as some people will use your URL as anchor text. that will translate your URL anchor into a keyword rich link

[janeth]

Originally Posted by flyingspider

Some people like to sleep on a bed without a pillow. If sleeping on a pillow allows you to sleep better, than use it. In our case, I have seen nothing but great results from URL with the keyword in it.

You have two choices:

1. buy a domain with the keyword in it
2. buy a generic domain and name the webpage using the keyword that you're trying to optimize for

Here's an excellent example of a webpage with strong IBL (in bound links) and it's using a keyword rich webpage: diet pills - Google Search

The #1 listing has been dominating that keyword for about 5 years now. Still think its not worth it? Follow their strategy and succeed in Google and other search engines.

And do you really believe that name is the only reason they rank #1?

[janeth]

Originally Posted by StevenRB

The original poster simply mentioned keywords in the "URL."

In my mind, that's not just the domain name.

The "Diet Pills" example given above is, in fact, a case of a top result with the keywords in the URL (as well as all the other good things mentioned in that post and others).

#1 is "www.weight-loss-institute.com"

#2 is "www.trustedonlinedrugs.com"

#3 is "www.redbookmag.com"

If it is all about the name of the site then why do those sites out rank them?

[activeco]

Originally Posted by StevenRB

The original poster simply mentioned keywords in the "URL."

In my mind, that's not just the domain name.

Exactly. Surprisingly how people tend to grasp specific questions in a shallow way.

Yes, keyword in a subdomain, domain, directory or file name is surely helpful (for all major search engines) unless overused.

[bj]

To answer your other question, in my opinion there are three things that will help raise your site in the SERPs. Good Canonical Structure (which may include keyphrases in urls!), One Way Inbound Links from relevant and high ranking sites along with the link text they use to link to you, and lots and lots and lots of CONTENT added regularly. There are other factors which may help, but I think for anyone starting out those are the ones to concentrate on first. And all three are easier when you either run your site using properly configured blog software, or add a well configured blog to your site as part of it.

[Orion]

Honestly I don't believe that any ONE item is the key..

It's a series of small things that add up to success... imho the top ones would be targeted well written content, clean code and structure, effectively written title/description for each page, and IBLs...

There is also a definite difference if your business is strictly online. If you have a brick and mortar business then your URL would ideally be your business name, because those in your local community (or if you brand your company / product well) will search for you directly. Every website should come up in the top 3 for their business name, at the very least in a local search.

[Chris Taylor]

Although you ask people to place anchor text in the outbound link, its is estmated that 60 to 70% will use the actual domain url rather than anchor text.

ie. h t t p : / / w w w......

Therefore if I use a domain name not associated with my main keywords I am eliminating up to 60 or 70% of the anchor text that I could have received which is literally SEO sucicide as linking is costly and time consuming.

For actual deeper page urls, people are more likely to use anchor text due to the length of the url and fitting in with written content on the page or overall site design, etc.

It is really common sense to name the pages around the content which is being written.


Cheers, Chris.

[bj]

Good point, Chris. Though I do have to wonder if kickasswebdesign.com in linktext will do anything near as much for me as "web design" (though that keyphrase is so competitive it'll be years before I see the top few hundred anyway!) That does hit home though in terms of blog article titles, which are included in the url with hyphens between the words, at least in wordpress, and which, according to Matt Cutts, are perceived by the spiders as separate words.

[1stgirl.com]

When the conditions (SEO, servers, etc) for both domains are equal, the one with the keyword will win.

I had proven the above many times since 1995.

[janeth]

Originally Posted by bj

Good point, Chris. Though I do have to wonder if kickasswebdesign.com in linktext will do anything near as much for me as "web design"

I wonder how many people looking for a web designer would type in web design?

[janeth]

Originally Posted by Chris Taylor

Therefore if I use a domain name not associated with my main keywords I am eliminating up to 60 or 70% of the anchor text that I could have received which is literally SEO sucicide as linking is costly and time consuming.

I agree with this and I agree with using your keywords in your url on internal pages however I'd still buy the name I liked and work out the anchor text problem later.

There are a lot of ways to get links to your site that you have total control of. And the benefit of having the url in your name is very small if you can control the links coming into your site.

[anandnadaar]

IMO it is not important.. though as every one above suggested it can be helpful, but not compulsory..
I have an ecommerce website which doesn't have keywords in URL's (are dynamic pages) but I still rank well since it largely depends upon your other SEO strategies..
And if you say it is people than yes I agree because at times when a user looks at his address bar of his browser then he should be able to understand where he is.. but ofcourse that should be related to your content as well or you are anyways not going to rank well.

[subhzash]

Originally Posted by Callme

Ive read somewhere, maybe here that keywords in the url are not so important for google ranking but are for yahoo?
Is this true?
IM so new to this! Id love to know in a few words ( if anyone one would be so kind) whats the most important thing to have sorted for good SEO? keyword density? inbound links?

Its really does not matter much. Its small part of overall SEO. But if you have keywords in urls it really good

[Pico_Train]

I think keywords in the domain, folder structure and page names are important. Using proper keywords in conjunction with other SEO techniques will give you a good base to get better rankings.

[businessdata]

Originally Posted by sudhani

In my opinion, the Keywords in URL will help as some people will use your URL as anchor text. that will translate your URL anchor into a keyword rich link

Is this not such a very important and obvious point?

Imo, so much so that the simple answer to the initial question is YES, keywords in the URL do help with Google SERPS.

[TrafficProducer]

keywords in the url

Just out of interest: On a very quick trail only, I found that any keywords in the url appear to effect any Google AdSence on the page.

[powsurfer]

In Google I believe they have a small effect often outweighed by other more important factors.

In Yahoo & MSN I believe they are playing a larger part but don't think they are one of the more important ranking factors.

Site structure and relevant IBLs are 2 factors I give high importance to.

[angusreece]

Surely the main point is that if a keyword is in the url, you are much more likely to repeat that keyword through out the page.

If you have the keyword in the domain name you will be repeating the keyword through out the site making it even more powerful.

It is much more important to present the page well for human visitors and this does require that pages be named according to their content.

Angus

[johnnyjohnny]

what makes a great big league home run hitter?

as recent controversies suggest, steroids along with some natural talent? in seo terms that might be called success through borderline spamming

inordinate talent, superb reflexes and perfect form despite not much size? probably will achieve modestly good results

longevity, size, good form, decent amount of talent?

decent ballplayer, some power, and being on a continually contending team, batting just right in the order so you are always pitched to?

point being, in seo terms i certainly wouldn't turn down having keywords in my url, it could make the difference, but i wouldn't expect to be the home run leader on that trick alone

johnnyjohnny

[Bill Treloar]

Originally Posted by hyperdog

As for the actual questions, I think inbound link anchor text and titles are the most important SEO elements to worry about - as long as you don't have any barriers to the googlebot accessing your site (like javascript only navigation, etc.)

Agree mostly. Baseline is a search engine friendly site design. Then you need good, relevant link popularity and keywords in title tags and visible text.

[keyon]

Maybe this thread has played itself out by now, but I'm still a little fuzzy about what people saying in regards to (1) keywords in domain, vs (2) keywords in URL. I think some people on this thread are using the words "domain" and "URL" interchangeably, as if they mean the same thing. Others have tried to point out the difference, but their posts seem to get buried as new posts come in with the original confusion.

Can anyone address the value of keywords in a domain (mydomain.com) vs keywords in a URL(mydomain.com/mydomain.html)?

[DrTandem1]

Originally Posted by keyon

Maybe this thread has played itself out by now, but I'm still a little fuzzy about what people saying in regards to (1) keywords in domain, vs (2) keywords in URL. I think some people on this thread are using the words "domain" and "URL" interchangeably, as if they mean the same thing. Others have tried to point out the difference, but their posts seem to get buried as new posts come in with the original confusion.

Can anyone address the value of keywords in a domain (mydomain.com) vs keywords in a URL(mydomain.com/mydomain.html)?

When we are speaking of a URL generically, we are talking about the domain name that resolves to the IP address (URL) for the site, not the subsequent files below that domain/URL or in another directory. Otherwise, the question would be more appropriately revolve around file names. For instance, when speaking of the domain name, it is rarely specified as index.htm, index.html, index.php, etc. By the way, since most Home page files are named "index" and all can have vastly different content, why would any weight be put on the file name?

Therefore, I think the file name carries little weight with regards to SERPs. The file name beyond the index file is generally a name that reminds the designer of the page's content, however it could be named anything. You may want to test this by creating a blank (void of content) HTML file beyond the index file and name it something extremely unique and link to it without anchor text that reflects that file name from other crawled pages. Then see whether it evers turns up in a search for its file name. I doubt it will.

[bj]

When we are speaking of a URL generically, we are talking about the domain name that resolves to the IP address (URL) for the site, not the subsequent files below that domain/URL or in another directory.

According to Wikipedia, you're in error. Whatever you put into the address bar to find any specific webpage is an URL. Using bbcode to put that link in that leads to the specific wikipedia article I used this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL

And in bbcode that is referred to as the URL.

And from White Hat Design:

"URL - Uniform Resource Locator is the complete address of a resource or files on the world wide web. It includes the protocol, the domain and the name of the file."

[activeco]

I am not a big fan of pedantry but for those who are:

Web Naming and Addressing Overview (URIs, URLs, ...)

To try to answer your extended question:

IMO for Google, there is no difference between keyword in domain name and on some other place in the url (uri ). For other engines, domain may bear more weight.
In any case it's not a huge factor, just another one.

[TrafficProducer]

I had a domain name, (with a hyphen in it), This domain name was made up of two Keywords.

Content was very relavant to those two Keyword.

This was one one the highest Traffic, visitor, sites I had.

So I guess Keywords in the domain name are important

[janeth]

Originally Posted by TrafficProducer

I had a domain name, (with a hyphen in it), This domain name was made up of two Keywords.

Content was very relavant to those two Keyword.

This was one one the highest Traffic, visitor, sites I had.

So I guess Keywords in the domain name are important

I have a website that does not have any of my keywords in it and it gets more traffic then any other site I have but that does not mean anything.

[Peter (IMC)]

SEO is about harmony. Everything needs to be related. Title, h1, text, alt tags, image file names, etc. And thus URL's too. That doesn't mean everything has to be a exactly the same. Variations are good and even prefered.

It really doesn't matter what different search engines think is more important. In the end they look at the total of all factors.

So when you optimize, better get everything right, because then you don't even have to worry about the different search engines. Just optimize the website and you will be ok.

Just out of interest: On a very quick trail only, I found that any keywords in the url appear to effect any Google AdSence on the page.

That's something I have noticed as well. keywords in the url have a huge influence on relevance of adsense ads.

Doesnt really matter at all from my perspective. You can just browse the SERPs and see this.

With short phrases I agree, but when you search with longer phrases, the SERP's are diferent. And for most websites most of the keywords they´re found for are longer phrases.

[powsurfer]

I am seeing that Yahoo seems to give the keywords in the URL lots of weight.
I have one site that hasn't even been built yet but comes top5 in Yahoo for Ski South America, the url is skisouthamerica.net, where as snoventures.com is lucky to get into the top 20 in Yahoo whilst various pages for numerous keywords we have chosen to target come top 5 in Google.

snoventures.com is error free and has no bad pages (according to Google webmaster tools at last check), 1400 IBLs some from very good sites, h1/2/3 tags structured, uses divs not tables etc

Can't seem to crack Yahoo other than buying a domain and building a site on that domain especially for Yahoo...
Is there something I am missing with Yahoo I wonder?

[TrafficProducer]

You may wish to consider that Yahoo are said to be making change so it may be best to wait until things stablise:-
Yahoo! Search Index Update Yahoo is rolling out some changes to our crawling, indexing and ranking algorithms. While we expect the update will be completed soon, as you know, throughout this process you may see some ranking changes and page shuffling in the index.

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by crankydave

Anything that a SE considers is important IMO. How important is another matter.

I fully agree! And reading this thread I noticed again that another factor is not important. No matter which factor is discussed I only read: It is not an important factor.

For example like:
- Alt attributes are not important.
- Bold or italic tags are not important.
- Heading tags like <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, etc are not important.
- List or definition tags are not important.
- e.t.c.

And at the end what is left over? Maybe the title tag? Then I think plain text files can rank the same good as HTML pages if they have quality IBLs? Or did I miss something?

At least one thing is sure, that text files can get a good PR: http://www.whitehouse.gov/robots.txt

SEMANTICS PEOPLE! BOTS ARE SOFTWARE AND CAN ONLY PRECEIVE CONTENT MEANING THROUGH SEMANTICS: Computer science - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by Peter (IMC)

SEO is about harmony. Everything needs to be related. Title, h1, text, alt tags, image file names, etc. And thus URL's too. That doesn't mean everything has to be a exactly the same. Variations are good and even prefered.

It really doesn't matter what different search engines think is more important. In the end they look at the total of all factors.

So when you optimize, better get everything right, because then you don't even have to worry about the different search engines. Just optimize the website and you will be ok.

That's something I have noticed as well. keywords in the url have a huge influence on relevance of adsense ads.

With short phrases I agree, but when you search with longer phrases, the SERP's are diferent. And for most websites most of the keywords they´re found for are longer phrases.

I gave you a positive REP Peter. Very well explained.