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Now this resembles deep linking very much. As far as i've known for a few months deep linking isn't good, yet i don't see sites getting penalised. Sites submitted to HEDIR that are deep linking sites are rejected in most cases.
Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 12:48 pm Post subject: Latest Blog Post : Blog and earn!
Hi Brett,
The link is to a private forum (paid one)
The is always a good value for page closer to home be in link or be it url. _________________ http://www.idealwebtools.com/blog/orkut-banned-india/ - Orkut getting a ban in India, why? Is it fair? Politicians not liking it as some voices are raised against.
Keywords : In File Path
We started off with the biggie on The Title. Which is without a doubt, the most important aspect of the page in my opinion.
Next up, we are going to walk down the long list of "keyword" signal locations that SE's have used historically
I am going to keep reminding you, that this series is about find a good middle ground where you can build It and forget it. This is about building a page that will survive most of the whims of the algo and occasionally find it's way into the top part of the results. It is also about keeping a target off your chest for your competition to see. I think in this day-n-age, you have more to fear from your competitions issues with you, than you do with search engines having issues with you.
Keywords in Path or Filename
Note that we are not talking specifically about domain names here. We-will-have-that-argument-at-another-time.
If you are targeting "big white widgets", you might try"
/big/white/widgets/ or /widgets/white/big/
The simple idea is to use the keyword in stand alone or together in the path and or filename.
The typical questions that come up at this point:
should we use a dash, space, or underline?
how many times may I use the keyword?
does case matter?
does order matter?
does length matter?
The simple answer to all the questions, is yes it matters. They all matter. Each one of the above is a simple dial control in all 4 of the current big engines algos. All 4 toy with those settings a little bit on each update. One time a dash will be preferred by Yahoo, while the next a space might be a winner.
When you get down to it, the goals should be to work the phrase in to the path without being overly spammy about it. I think it is safe to use a keyword twice in a path or file name because so many site structures end up using two keywords in the url in a completely normal way.
For example, here is a url that uses widgets twice:
/red/economy_widgets/family_sized_widgets.html
That is perfectly acceptable to anyone, so it is rare that search engines will have a problem with it. On the other hand:
/red/economy_widgets/family_sized_widgets.cgi?widgets=widgets&red=widg et
Is going to get hit with a "penalty". I hate the word "penalty" or "Filter". I think of things in terms of scoring. What if a url routine worked like this:
One keyword equals 100 points,
and two keywords equals 150 points,
three keywords equals 50 points,
and four equals 10 points.
five or more equal nothing.
So, using 3 or more keywords won't "penalize" the page, but rather it won't score as high as it should. Those are clearly "dials" that search engines have in their grasp and tweak with each algo update.
Lastly, toy, but avoid as a primary strategy, using form values with keywords. There are certain instances where keywords in urls with form values are acceptable. Those instances are rare, and are totally tweakable by the search engines.
The moral here is like life: everything in moderation.
Randoms:
Don't forget about stemming. Plurals and even misspells are worth alot.
Just because it is a pdf or a doc file doesn't mean that keywords mean any less. In which cases, they often mean more.
RunOns - Don't be afraid to try some. DenverColorado can be just as effective as Denver_Colorado.
For those wishing for higher risk: try some odd stems. Such as KeywordesPhrase or Keywording-phrases. Ya, it looks weird...and probably won't survive the whim of an algo. Funny how it works though.
Dash vs Underline: I would use underlines first. Why? Hyphens are allowed in Domain names - thus, they carry greater risk of adverse algo whims.
Space? I wouldn't use it as it can still trip up some browsers on phones and pdas. I also have a suspicion that se's count off for it (or maybe it is because people won't link to a page with a space in it?)
Directory path names will generally carry more weight than filenames.
Again - beat drum - keywords must be relevant to the page content.
Never forget that the url is how people are going to link to the page. Always try to highlight your keywords, so that it becomes a subliminal message to them to use that as the link text.
This is all going to be relative to the structure of the site categories. I'm not too certain that I would want to target the term /american/ in a directory path. You might do /america/ or the standard which is /usa/ or /united-states/. That is a tough call. I look at URI structure like a breadcrumb trail. My breadcrumb trails usually mimick the primary keyword phrase order. For example if the page title is American Widgets for Sale, I'm going to consider the following URI structures...
No need for the extra level using the words /for-sale/ unless of course you have a site that differentiates between items for sale, lease or rent, then I might consider these URI structures...
The URI structure is going to be totally dependent on the architecture of your site. That is why planning a site based on architecture is very important for organization and long term management.
Keep in mind that your upper most categories will appear first in the URI string and then work their way down through the sub-directories. Think of your site structure as one giant list element that has nested lists within it.
Your primary categories are <h1> elements within your list. Your secondary categories are <h2> elements within your list. And so on and so forth. Here's a visual using a URI string...
This is all going to be relative to the structure of the site categories. I'm not too certain that I would want to target the term /american/ in a directory path. You might do /america/ or the standard which is /usa/ or /united-states/. That is a tough call. I look at URI structure like a breadcrumb trail. My breadcrumb trails usually mimick the primary keyword phrase order. For example if the page title is American Widgets for Sale, I'm going to consider the following URI structures...
No need for the extra level using the words /for-sale/ unless of course you have a site that differentiates between items for sale, lease or rent, then I might consider these URI structures...
The URI structure is going to be totally dependent on the architecture of your site. That is why planning a site based on architecture is very important for organization and long term management.
Keep in mind that your upper most categories will appear first in the URI string and then work their way down through the sub-directories. Think of your site structure as one giant list element that has nested lists within it.
Your primary categories are <h1> elements within your list. Your secondary categories are <h2> elements within your list. And so on and so forth. Here's a visual using a URI string...
Dash vs Underline: I would use underlines first. Why? Hyphens are allowed in Domain names - thus, they carry greater risk of adverse algo whims.
A quote from Matt Cutts
Quote:
So if you have a url like word1_word2, Google will only return that page if the user searches for word1_word2 (which almost never happens). If you have a url like word1-word2, that page can be returned for the searches word1, word2, and even “word1 word2″.
As far as domain.com/7/6/5/4/3/2/1/
IMO you lose value each time you cut to a new directory.
Even though I don't believe in PR, I would note that PR value also drops as you go deeper into a site.
Although you could do the same as in /this-that/ , I wouldnt use more than 3 words. Four and up is really pushing it.
IMO there are 3 issues here: deep-linking, site structure and keyword loaded URL's.
Deep-linking:
There's nothing wrong with deep-linking itself. It's just a bad practice for submitting to directories (any webmaster should know that). In most directories deep-linking is not allowed because directories want the top level domain in their lists. Otherwise a category would be filled with individual pages of one domain. I reject all deep-linking submissions for that reason.
Site structure:
A very important part of a good site. If only for site maintenance but also for grouping keyword-related information in different directories. I do it, although I had to learn it the hard way and made a lot of beginner's mistakes. Site structure is hard because you have to plan it up-front or you'll end up with lots of 301's. And we all know the way Google treats 301's. Another interesting point in this regard would be if you put an "index.html" in all sub-directories and link to the sub-directory itself or put links to individual pages in the sub-directory. I'm still undecided on this.
Keyword-loaded URL's:
I agree with Junky: 3 words is the limit. As a moderator all bells start ringing when I see "keyword1-keyword2-keyword3-for-keyword4" URL's and I tend to check the site with a slightly bad and nit-picking attitude.
Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 4:00 pm Post subject: Latest Blog Post : Blog and earn!
Do a phone test and whatever passes should be accepted as a better choice. _________________ http://www.idealwebtools.com/blog/orkut-banned-india/ - Orkut getting a ban in India, why? Is it fair? Politicians not liking it as some voices are raised against.
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