URL Length and Search Engine Optimization
How the selection of a URL affects search engine positioning.
There is some difference of opinion on the subject of whether or not the URL of a web site affects its search rankings. Let us first note the golden rule of search engine optimization.
Though shalt not build a web site for search engines, but rather for human visitors.
There is evidence which indicates URL selection affects search rankings. The two main factors seem to be:
1. Extremely long URL’s seem to be considered hard to type by a human, therefore an attempt at spam; and
2. Given the fact that a long URL is considered an attempt at spam, it would then seem to be true that search engine rankings can be improved by the use of keyphrases in a URL.
An example of the first point above would be a URL that looks something like this: www.roses-chrysanthemums-tulips-and-more.com. No legitimate company would actually want this domain, nor would any human care to type it. It is an obvious attempt to spam the search engines. So, we remember the Golden Rule of Search Engine Optimization. Some studies have shown that extremely long domain names appear less frequently in the top twenty results than do shorter ones.
That being said, empirical evidence does support search engine indexing of URL keywords. Both Google and Yahoo!, for example, display in bold the portion of a URL that matches a search string, which seems to me indicative of indexing. However, I have been unable to ascertain, either personally or through extensive research, any truly significant occurrence of URL’s in the top twenty results which contain the search string.
The lesson learned here is this: name your web site what would be a logical name – for instance, after your business name. Make it friendly to a human. If a search query happens to be part of that business name, then fine. Don't, however, engage in keyword stuffing in the selection of the URL.
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About the Author: Matt Foster is the President of ArteWorks Business Class, www.arteworks.biz, and is an expert in search engine optimization. For more information on search engine placement tips, please visit www.search-bully.com.
posted by Matt Foster, CEO, ArteWorks SEO @ 8:06 AM
4 Comments:
But it’s going to be hard to find available URL's with the key phrases or words that people usually use in searching. Most of the time, those are unavailable. Does that affect whether you use .com or .net or .org and so on? They say, .com is more acceptable to search engines. How true is that?
Hello Giant:
Thank you for your comment. If you re-read the post, you will see that any benefit from the use of keyphrases in the URL is nominal at best. In other words, it may help if everything else is equal, but is of such low importance that it is not worth stressing over. Name the site your business name if you can. If using keyphrases in the URL, be sure to keep the URL length less than 30 characters. But don't lose any sleep over this issue - there are much better ways to optimize your site to beat your competition.
I have never heard of any research which suggests a .com is any better than any other from a search engine perspective, although it would make some sense as a .com is more likely to be the older web site and have the more established Internet presence.
However, search engines already know how to tell when a domain was registered, so it wouldn't make sense for them to base any sort of aging algorithm on the existence of a .com as opposed to a .biz.
.Net and .org and .edu, etc. all all just as old as .com and I have never heard this mentioned as a factor in any of the forums.
I always think a .com has more prestige to the human being, so if it is available then I say take it. But I don't think it matters to the search engines.
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