Help an Idiot write his URL's

[chockomonkey]

I hate that i had to pull this post out of another thread to get my answer, but there's nothing but crickets in there.

I hate how everything fits together so nicely in theory, but when it comes down to the application, stupid unknowns pop up. In this case, i was trying to include my keyword in the URL.

When it comes down to actually naming your URL, it appears you have choices to make:

domain.com/keyword1
domain.com/keyword1.html
domain.com/keyword1/keyword1.html
domain.com/keyword1/keyword2.html

These varieties are simply variances in the file structure, so what?s the right way?

You could keep it simple with "domain.com/keyword1.html", but are there any benefits/disadvantages to creating redundancy with this file structure:

domain.com/keyword1/keyword1.html

and then rewriting it to the root directory?: domain.com/keyword1

Cheers,

Chocko

 

[ForeverNever]

I don't think something like domain.com/keyword1/keyword1.html has any real effect. domain.com/keyword1/keyword2.html will probably help you though. It's too bad you couldn't have keyword1.com!

 

[chockomonkey]

I don't think something like domain.com/keyword1/keyword1.html has any real effect. domain.com/keyword1/keyword2.html will probably help you though. It's too bad you couldn't have keyword1.com!

Thanks for replying... i was SOO hoping that this would be the case... that no matter how you want to put in in there, it really doesn't matter. Though naturally what comes first, bla bla...

phew!

Keyword1.com would indeed be better, but i'm stuck with the company name as the domain.

 

[BassTrackerBoats]

domain.com/keyword1-keyword2-keyword3

For instance - shoes.com/ladies-red-shoes
shoes.com/mens-orange-shoes

 

[chockomonkey]

domain.com/keyword1-keyword2-keyword3

For instance - shoes.com/ladies-red-shoes
shoes.com/mens-orange-shoes

Ah yes thanks for clarifying. I keep saying keyword1, but i really mean "my 1st keyphrase"

What's really confusing me is when to use the actual file name versus the folder name for your URL. On some pages you see the url end with .php/.html/.asp, etc. but you can obviously have those file's rewritten in your .htaccess file as just the root directory. Which one do you guys use? In your above example, it appears like your file structure could be more than one thing....

/ladies-red-shoes/index.html
/ladies-red-shoes/ladies-red-shoes.html

but it couldn't be: "/ladies-red-shoes.html" correct?

 

[BassTrackerBoats]

Mine all look like this:

hxxp://mystie.com/online-business-opportunities.html

 

[goawayplease]

The structure should differ slight based on the content being shown...

domain/primary-topic/secondary-topic/exact-phrase/ depending on the length of your key phrases.

For example:
domain/shoes/ladies-shoes/red-ladies-shoes/ would work great for an article/product style site.

domain/shoes/ladies-shoes/red/ would work well for a search tree with links back to content with the above article structure.

 

[stopnstare]

I have been wondering about this,

Example:
domain.com/smelly-toenail-clippings or
domain.com/smellytoenailclippings

Which one is better for SEO?

 

[goawayplease]

In general it doesn't matter, the semantic algorithms do a pretty good job at catching the words.

Non-Dash URLs are shorter, and easier to enter, and leave more room for complete phrases.

Non-Dash URLs also have the benefit of off-phrase matching, since a dash is treated as a "stop."

For example - "smellytoenailclippings" can match "mellytoen" or other bits and pieces of the phrase.

I have been wondering about this,

Example:
domain.com/smelly-toenail-clippings or
domain.com/smellytoenailclippings

Which one is better for SEO?