Technical SEO Question

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HCPGuy

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Ive recently began working on projecrs with full lifecycle marketing targeting licensed heathcare professionals in the US. That includes SEO/AEO management.

Problem is last time I was responsible for organic was before COVID so a lot has changed but not everything.

Two things I cant seem to figure out is 1. The importance/impact of url matching target keywords. Client has horrible url naming conventions and I remember a time when exact match urls mattered. and 2. Does the url taxonomy/structure matter much today in terms of flat urls (root/page) outperforming a root/collection or blog/page structure?

Or is the honest answer this doesnt matter anymore and backlinks are still king? Ha
 
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Exact match URLs aren’t nearly as important as they used to be.

Focus more on clear, logical URLs and site structure for users and crawling. Backlinks still matter, but content quality, intent, internal linking, and overall site quality are much bigger pieces of the puzzle now.
 
Exact match URLs don't carry the weight they used to, it's much better to keep them short, descriptive, and user-friendly.

Regarding taxonomy, a logical silo structure usually beats a flat structure because it helps build topical authority and passes link juice.

Backlinks are still important, but they work best when paired with high-quality, relevant content.
 
HCPGuy said:
Ive recently began working on projecrs with full lifecycle marketing targeting licensed heathcare professionals in the US. That includes SEO/AEO management.

Problem is last time I was responsible for organic was before COVID so a lot has changed but not everything.

Two things I cant seem to figure out is 1. The importance/impact of url matching target keywords. Client has horrible url naming conventions and I remember a time when exact match urls mattered. and 2. Does the url taxonomy/structure matter much today in terms of flat urls (root/page) outperforming a root/collection or blog/page structure?

Or is the honest answer this doesnt matter anymore and backlinks are still king? Ha
Click to expand...
in my experience, it has been easy to overthink URL perfectionism where more is to be gained elsewhere. i would just ensure that they are easily readable nd that there are no duplicate pages created. in case a major change in the exissting format involves working on a huge number of URLs i would need a compelling reason for it.
 
HCPGuy said:
Ive recently began working on projecrs with full lifecycle marketing targeting licensed heathcare professionals in the US. That includes SEO/AEO management.

Problem is last time I was responsible for organic was before COVID so a lot has changed but not everything.

Two things I cant seem to figure out is 1. The importance/impact of url matching target keywords. Client has horrible url naming conventions and I remember a time when exact match urls mattered. and 2. Does the url taxonomy/structure matter much today in terms of flat urls (root/page) outperforming a root/collection or blog/page structure?

Or is the honest answer this doesnt matter anymore and backlinks are still king? Ha
Click to expand...
Agreed. I wouldn’t ovrthnk exact-match urls or flat structures. A clean, logical taxonomy helps with crawlability and site organization, but wouldn’t expect /page to automatically outperform /blog/page. I’d prioritize intent, content quality, internal linking, and authority over URL structure alone.
 
Exact match URLs offer little advantage now; keep them descriptive, use logical taxonomy for crawling, and avoid unnecessary migrations while prioritizing expert content, trust signals and relevant links.
 
keyword in url can help a little but i wouldnt change good urls just for that. url structure is more about clean site and easy crawling, backlinks still matter but content and relevance also play big role.
 
Currently, Google is trying to match user intent with the brand instead of webpage, so a lot of irrelevant pages from high authority sites started ranking instead of relevant webpages from multiple sites. You should build your brand keeping niche in mind, so that you don't need to bother much about the webpage URLs.
 
HCPGuy said:
Ive recently began working on projecrs with full lifecycle marketing targeting licensed heathcare professionals in the US. That includes SEO/AEO management.

Problem is last time I was responsible for organic was before COVID so a lot has changed but not everything.

Two things I cant seem to figure out is 1. The importance/impact of url matching target keywords. Client has horrible url naming conventions and I remember a time when exact match urls mattered. and 2. Does the url taxonomy/structure matter much today in terms of flat urls (root/page) outperforming a root/collection or blog/page structure?

Or is the honest answer this doesnt matter anymore and backlinks are still king? Ha
Click to expand...
Exact-match URLs aren’t a major ranking factor anymore. Keep URLs descriptive and relevant, but don’t force keywords into them. The URL structure itself also matters less than content quality, internal linking, crawlability, and search intent.
 
HCPGuy said:
Ive recently began working on projecrs with full lifecycle marketing targeting licensed heathcare professionals in the US. That includes SEO/AEO management.

Problem is last time I was responsible for organic was before COVID so a lot has changed but not everything.

Two things I cant seem to figure out is 1. The importance/impact of url matching target keywords. Client has horrible url naming conventions and I remember a time when exact match urls mattered. and 2. Does the url taxonomy/structure matter much today in terms of flat urls (root/page) outperforming a root/collection or blog/page structure?

Or is the honest answer this doesnt matter anymore and backlinks are still king? Ha
Click to expand...
If there are issue with crawling, then I would first work to fix them before moving any URL on the basis of keyword.
 
Exact-match URLs still play a role, but today they only give a small boost when the rest of the site's quality factors are in place- domain trust, age, backlinks, and content authority.
Yes, it can help, but the days when you could just put a keyword in the URL and rank are long gone.
 
HCPGuy said:
Ive recently began working on projecrs with full lifecycle marketing targeting licensed heathcare professionals in the US. That includes SEO/AEO management.

Problem is last time I was responsible for organic was before COVID so a lot has changed but not everything.

Two things I cant seem to figure out is 1. The importance/impact of url matching target keywords. Client has horrible url naming conventions and I remember a time when exact match urls mattered. and 2. Does the url taxonomy/structure matter much today in terms of flat urls (root/page) outperforming a root/collection or blog/page structure?

Or is the honest answer this doesnt matter anymore and backlinks are still king? Ha
Click to expand...
Do not be misled into using 301 redirection just to get URLs that have your keywords. EEAT nd topic authority actually matter in healthcare.
 
HCPGuy said:
Ive recently began working on projecrs with full lifecycle marketing targeting licensed heathcare professionals in the US. That includes SEO/AEO management.

Problem is last time I was responsible for organic was before COVID so a lot has changed but not everything.

Two things I cant seem to figure out is 1. The importance/impact of url matching target keywords. Client has horrible url naming conventions and I remember a time when exact match urls mattered. and 2. Does the url taxonomy/structure matter much today in terms of flat urls (root/page) outperforming a root/collection or blog/page structure?

Or is the honest answer this doesnt matter anymore and backlinks are still king? Ha
Click to expand...
Do not take risks with changing live URLS for the sake of some small amount of keywords rather start by solving issue related to crawling, then focus on relevance.
 
Agreed. Keeping URLs short, clear, and descriptive is usually more practical than changing them just to fit exact-match keywords.
 
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