Keywords in URLs as ranking factor?

Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi

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Keywords in URLs as ranking factor?

Dimitri

5:14 pm on Jul 26, 2018 (gmt 0)

Hi,

At a time, you could rank first for anything, just because you had keywords in the URLs, of course it didn't last, because it was way too easy to exploit it. So over the time, I feel like keywords in URLs was less and less important. And today, does it still has any kind of significant importance as a ranking factor? And in fact, can it have a negative impact, to use them? I mean, may be it can be seen as an attempt of "over" optimizing.

Wilburforce

9:25 pm on Jul 26, 2018 (gmt 0)

Giving a page a name that reflects its content clearly isn't exploitive, and the practice is too common to become a likely target (but also too common to be of much benefit).

In my view, calling a spade a spade is good practice (better than calling it page1.htm), but you'll need more than that to earn a Distinction.

keyplyr

1:50 am on Jul 27, 2018 (gmt 0)

Keywords anywhere have been significantly reduced as a ranking factor. The AI algo looks to match custom results with user intent.

lucy24

2:59 am on Jul 27, 2018 (gmt 0)

can it have a negative impact

You mean, might
example.com/widget/widget/widget/widget/widget.html
come out worse than
example.com/widgets.html
? That gets us into the realm of �All things being equal ... only all things never are equal�.

Robert Charlton

3:21 am on Jul 27, 2018 (gmt 0)

You mean, might
example.com/widget/widget/widget/widget/widget.html
come out worse than
example.com/widgets.html

It's likely that
widgets-widgets-widgets.tld/widget/widget/widget/widget/widget.html
might come out worse yet.

lucy24

3:57 am on Jul 27, 2018 (gmt 0)

widgets-widgets-widgets.tld

These days, probably widgets-widgets-widgets.widget

The other day I saw a movie preview that included the inevitable website plug, only instead of the usual examplemovie.com--or, more likely, nearestexamplewecouldfindtoanavailabledomainname.com--it was example.film. I thought, hey, that's a sensible reason for a specialty tld.

tangor

6:35 am on Jul 27, 2018 (gmt 0)

Ha ha! Those might even qualify as "duplicate content"!

AFAIK keyword is one of several hundred factors in play ... we don't actually know what weighting might be applied to that factor.

Wilburforce

7:04 am on Jul 27, 2018 (gmt 0)

You mean, might
example.com/widget/widget/widget/widget/widget.html
come out worse than
example.com/widgets.html

It probably would, but I wasn't suggesting you should call a spade a spade/spade/spade/spade/spade.

tangor

7:17 am on Jul 27, 2018 (gmt 0)

when it is spade/shovel/trowel/hand/spade-shovel-trowel-hand.html
followed by
shovel/spade/trowel/hand/shovel-spade-trowel-hand.html
it does look a little wonky.

cr1m

11:43 am on Jul 27, 2018 (gmt 0)

Even if the keywords aren't a ranking factor, they can give additional value to the searcher showing up in the URL part of the search result snippet. As long as they aren't abused, but rather reflect the real contents of the page.

tangor

12:14 pm on Jul 27, 2018 (gmt 0)

Agreed! Unfortnately 42kzillion spammers will try to game the system and ruin it for everyone else. :)

That's why CONTENT remains King (and even then that gets spammed like crazy!)

The web in 1996 was one kind of place... then g came along and within 5 years the script kiddies spoiled the place. Nothing has been right ever since. (sigh)