Does it matter where your keyword appears in url?

tygrus said:
but is something like: 'unrelated.com/topcategory/subcategory/(posting keyword1)' worse for SEO than 'unrelated.com/(posting keyword1)', or doesn't it make any difference?
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Oh gotcha. From reading what pro's have said in this thread, the order does matter. In the case listed, that keyword would be less relevant than what comes before it. Can't you change your categories to make them keywords? This to me is part of on-page seo.
 
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chockomonkey said:
Oh gotcha. From reading what pro's have said in this thread, the order does matter. In the case listed, that keyword would be less relevant than what comes before it. Can't you change your categories to make them keywords? This to me is part of on-page seo.
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The categories are keywords but very broad generic ones compared to the posting keyword.
 
tygrus said:
The categories are keywords but very broad generic ones compared to the posting keyword.
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In the case of something like an article directory, that falls under a special exception to the rule, as they are infact relevant to all of the keywords and topics they have relevant content for under each category.

That is why you can have multiple unrelated products in your shopping cart/e-commerce store and still rank for specific keywords, and not be penalized for having them.
 
edit: made my own thread for people just as dumb
 
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tygrus said:
I guess I am referring more to very huge sites, like article sites, that have categories.

for instance: unrelated.com/topcategory/subcategory/(keyword1)
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Categories and article pages are different beasts. One article might apply to several categories...

An article on a Kitchen Remodel might fall under Kitchens & Bath and Home Improvement... the problem with directory trees is they arent good at mapping webs...

You might want to look into tagging and tag cloud approaches...

for instance: unrelated.com/best_tag/2nd_best_tag/article_slug

parse the slug from the URL to display the proper content irrespective of the number of tags in the URL path.
 
If we were to compete for the same keywords, then the person who has it in their domain name (if all other factors were the same) would outrank the person without the keyword in their domain anyday.

The op asked which way is the best to go with this, and it's having your keywords in the domain.

If you want to make it harder for yourself then take the longer route by other means, marketers such as myself will have less competition.
 
aftershock2020 said:
That's not absolutely the case, bobby. Proof that having good traffic driven keywords and relevant targeted content comes in every form of site imaginable without one keyword in their domain sake. Here are a few examples:

Google, Ebay, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, Amazon, Zappos, Target, Wal-Mart, NetFlix, Blockbuster.


Just to name a few there and all of them have primary keywords NOT listed in their domain names at all. They are sites that operate with a short list of ' related ', targeted keywords that are rich in traffic, provide relevant products/services to that traffic and provide the most relevant and productive content for the search engines, which just happens to be user-driven content in most cases; google, ebay, digg, facebook, bing, yahoo, ask, to be specific on those who do from the short list of respected sites above.

The rest are simple product/service sites that promote the more traditional method of ' We've got it when you need it ', brick and morter practices.

None of which required having their keyword in their domain to succeed in seo or in business ranking. Try to keep an openmind about things, as locking yourself into one mindset can block you from seeing that inwhich will show you how to succeed the best in your ventures.

Food for thought.
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The websites and companies you listed:

Google, Ebay, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, Amazon, Zappos, Target, Wal-Mart, NetFlix, Blockbuster

Don't forget they also have millions of backlinks, thousands of medias showing their brands, Millions of dollars in advertising, etc.

You aren't competing with those types of websites.

So using them as examples are not plausible for the average person.

That's like me saying I'm trying to rank for the keyterm "cheap insurance for the small guy" and instead of buying CheapInsuranceForTheSmallGuy.com I decide to buy "Chevrolet2.com" because Chevrolet.com is ranking high for car keyterms.

It has no relevance.

At the end of the day, the domains with the exact keyword will outrank the domains without the keyword, all other factors excluded.
 
tygrus said:
Someone here once said that if you do not have a keyworded domain (i.e. just a generic name), and just have a keyworded posting, then the closer that keyworded posting is to the domain in the url, the better it is for SEO. Any truth to this?
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From a hierarchical perspective in ranking and site structure, the answer would be yes.

A top level document is treated more importantly than a sub-category document as far as relevance to the site is concerned.

To use some of the examples given above, take a look at the link structures of ebay, amazon, etc etc.. Notice how they start with a top level category, and then work their way down.

You basically have more weight from the top.

If you can include some of your keyword within your URL, it does help a little. For example, include the word 'shoes' in your URL if your site is a shoe store. It is very likely that the document urls will also include the word shoes ie. adidas shoes, nike shoes .. so on.
 
The advanced bots like googlebot use latent semantic indexing, which allows it to practically read like a human. So having your keywords out of order is not a big deal. Naturally though, you'll want your keyphrases in the correct order for maximum effect.
 
Off course its better if you have your keyword in the domain name, but its all comes back to the backlinks. If you have a big competition and only a few backlinks, even a great domain name can't save you. So build organic backlinks to help your seo
 
In a thread I started a few days back looking at the issue of quality signals, the other day I looked at a keyword and viewed the results:

2lb0u1v.png


As you can see, the top results have no match in the URL. However, the #7 spot is an EXACT match, yet it's down at the bottom.

To make it even more interesting, all of these top placements, have either no backlinks, or a handful at most. The #7 spot guy has driven over 2700 backlinks, yet he's a dudd.

Keep in mind that this was for a particular product. I think the type of content has something to do with how the site is treated.

Regardless either way, this shows that having your keyword in the URL is not a snap bang boom approach that will work anymore.

Though the words in the documents below it, appears to have some impact.

If you want more on this discussion just go here: http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/white-hat-seo/206052-mayday-what-quality-signals.html

I think that the days of url matching keywords is over personally. You are much better of taking your root keyword and generating some kind of brandname around it for your site. Like leathersofalovers.com, or leathercomforts.com .. these are just off the top of my head, I don't even know if they are real sites or not. Just examples of how to combine a keyword with a brandable name.
 
Keyword proximity is very important where proximity is the property of being close together. :)
 
it helps to have it as the domain name, but it is not completely necessary. A keyword somewhere in the url is however required ie domain.com/keyword or keyword.domain.com notice most authority sites do not have the keyword in the domain ie wikipedia, amazon, webmd etc etc
 
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A partial match is ok, but its the overall quality factors of the site being the match for the query that is more important.

I just registered a new domain today that has the primary top level key term in it at the very beginning of the domain. Just one word. The structure of the site will have all documents that are targeted keywords will be top level to that domain.

Take a look at the serps and you will see that top spots go to top docs for exact phrase match.
 
Does anyone see a difference in using as sub-domain?

For instance:

ipods.mysite.com vs.

mysite.com/ipods
 
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