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As an example, which is best:
domain.com/homecooking.html
domain.com/home-cooking.html
domain.com/home_cooking.html
domain.com/homecooking/
domain.com/home-cooking/
domain.com/home_cooking/
domain.com/homecooking/friedchicken.html
domain.com/home-cooking/fried-cbicken.html
domain.com/home_cooking/fried_chicken.html
See?
BTW, I also have to consider usability for AOL-type users (there's already been a problem with a webring with a hyphenated domain name)
TIA, Marcia
domain.com/homecooking/
For the truly paranoid, also set up
domain.com/homecooking/home-cooking.htm and make it a 100% frame, framing the index page domain.com/homecooking/. Season the <noframes> section to taste.
He doesn't like the longer names because it requires more typing.
I don't remember where I saw this, but I was under the impression that kw rich file / page names fair better with the se than those pages that use something like "product1.html".
Gary
Me, too. That's part of the gut call, also there was something about index.htm being favored over a filename (like homecooking.htm or product1.html)
I was told that in linking to another URL the following www.yoursite.com/cessna-twin-sales.html would get more SE algorithm brownie points than ".../sales.html"! (I like airplanes. :) )
g
Me too, but I couldn't afford cars, boats, and planes. When I stalled the Cessna at 1500' and nearly bored a hole in a cornfield, it was pretty easy deciding which to give up.
run-ons vs hyphens
I agree that "yoursite.com/cessna-twin-sales.html" is better that "yoursite.com/sales.html" for the term cessna twin -even if we're wrong, I see no downside.
(Now pulling from the thread [webmasterworld.com] ) But which of the following would you choose?
"yoursite.com/cessna-twin-sales/" or "yoursite.com/cessnatwinsales/"
Evidently, most of the SE's can dissemble the "wordwordword" into three common words. The problem might be "uncommon" use of popular words that are being separated. There is an example on one of the other threads about www.woman.com being ranked high because of two words in a sentence being "put together" as a hot topic KW in the UK. It was not the intention of the designer to do this of course.
I know that the folks in other parts of the world learning English prefer the dashed urls. I believe it would be safer to use the dash url's if in doubt. BUT, I still don't know where I heard this and need this information to win my multi-million dollar bet. :)
P.S. I have my CFI-I, multi land and am building a Long Eze. You have your field and I brought home some branches from a tree!!!!
Good point. Since I'm US-only and hate typing extra characters, I'd opt for the run-on.
Here's one about file paths with an interesting point about total length of the url, including file and subdirectory names:
[webmasterworld.com...]
Gary, your cohort could always type in the short word and do a search and replace.
URL Links and Adding Value
QUICK TIPS:
·If generating or creating a "doorway" page, always create one or more hyper links to another page found on your site which includes more detail about the keyword topic.
·Creating page names which include your keyword such as blue-widgets.htm can help increase relevance on some engines. Most generally do not care what you name a page, but naming them based on the keyword you are targeting won't hurt.
·The visible text portion of a link should always include your keywords when possible.
I know there is more to this however....
Gary
Including Keywords in the Link Text
Quick Tips:
·Always use your primary keywords in the visible link tag area of at least one or more links on the page.
·Try to place your primary keywords at the start of the link when possible.
·If generating or creating a "doorway" page, always link to another page on your site which includes more detail about the keyword topic.
·Avoid listing the same word multiple times in a row since some engines may penalize for this. Instead, use the keyword multiple times, but separate them by other words in your text.
·Use the longer form and the plural form of a keyword when possible. For example, if you use marketing in your Title tag, a search on marketing or market will yield a match on most engines. However, words like companies will not always yield a match on company since company is not an exact "substring" of companies. In these cases you'll want to try and use both forms of the word.
·Use Upper/Lower case lettering for keywords in general. Example: Blue Widgets are sold here!
A page's relevance to a given search can be improved by taking advantage of another scoring technique favored by some engines. The text within a LINK is sometimes weighed more heavily than words found in the regular body text.
I don't the url where this came from, but there is more. I just didn't want to clutter the page.
Gary
Also, on one search, Google picked up the links - with keywords in them - at the bottom of the page for their description.
Having heard the root directory had relevance, I wanted to double check. And darn, still trying to find that post about the underscores and hyphens. However, from a user friendly standpoint, the run-ons are most likely better.
[Gary, I also didn't want to clutter - check your S-mail for some links.]
Marcia
We watched a competitor go for very long kw rich filenames a few months back (up to 60 characters). They don't seem to have made much progress on any of the major rankings that we're tracking.
What's the current view on run-on words etc?
domain.com/home_cooking.html
and I try to place all of my files in the root directory which seems to help as well.
The largest Site that I have worked on is 65 pages, so a larger Site would obviously create more of a headache. I am willing to believe that a keyword rich "folder" would give a boost as well, but I don't wanna fool with a good thing. Anyone tested this?
I read somewhere (Planet Ocean tip) that Google counts links from your own site for link popularity only when they are in other subdirectories within the site.
Does anyone have any thoughts about this?
There's a big site, been around for a while and listed in places as one of the "better" shopping sites on line, that's right *under* (#10)a new site of mine (#9) that recently starting coming up at Google (a big 11 page site). It's not the only factor, but those are the two sites on the first page with /inspirational-gifts/ in a directory. Mine is hyphenated, theirs isn't. I see nothing out of the ordinary, but do always pay attention to directory usage. I've seen a decent amount of evidence that directories do have an impact. Mine just hit AV, and the index page is #13 in that search (exact phrase in title, in link text, and directory name).
I could be wrong, but from what I've gathered, a /directory/ can actually be treated as though it were a separate site.
Jusitn
Marcia - A little off topic, but following from your post... I understand putting pages in different directories helps with internal linking boost in Google, and the increased differentiation of the directories is probably why.
What happens, though, to link popularity/relevance boosts from incoming external links? If using directories effectively separates the pages, could it not also reduce the boost from incoming links, say to the home page, on other pages within the site?
Also, I'm concerned with how the engines other than Google would treat pages in different directories. Any thoughts?
However, if you're focus is the index page, then it shouldn't be a problem.
We have a few sites like this and they tend to rank pretty well. In fact, one of these just got ranked # 2 in AV for a competitive keyword. Another one is # 3 in excite for another comp. keyword. Google also seemed to like it in the past, but I'm not sure if it still does.
>...Also, on one search, Google picked up the links - with keywords in them - at the bottom of the page for their description. ...>
I've seen this lots Marcia. Particularly for doorway pages where I may not have had the actual content needed to carry the page, not to mention the page was cloaked.
>...Themes and a good vertical linking structure as well as a good recip link program along with the proper directory structure and file naming scheme will most certainly present the appearance of topical relevancy.
...>
I agree. And not just the appearance. You go to that much effort and in the process you will create relevancy.
>..domain.com/home_cooking.html...>
My vote is domain.com/home_cooking/index.htm
>...Google counts links from your own site for link popularity only when they are in other subdirectories within the site. ...>
I've seen this and that's part of the reason I would suggest domain.com/home_cooking/index.htm as a naming convention. Every separate topic is given it's own subdirectory.
>....exact phrase in title, in link text, and directory name...>
I think this is a terrific pattern to follow. In fact it's little things like this that create consistency in a site. I believe that this consistency helps to build a stronger site and we should be considering these very things, from the beginning development of the site.
>...a /directory/ can actually be treated as though it were a separate site...>
I'm not sure I agree with that. Google always indents the subdirectories, which shows me they are credited but not as a separate domain. Canonicals are credited as separate domains so remember to consider them in your strategies.
>...What happens, though, to link popularity/relevance boosts from incoming external links? If using directories effectively separates the pages, could it not also reduce the boost from incoming links, say to the home page, on other pages within the site?...>
This is one I've been working on and in fact was part of my research yesterday. From what I'm seeing, and the research is not complete, links coming in to the individual directory pages does boost the link pop and relevancy of the site. What becomes important is how you then link those directory pages, internally to the rest of your site. How are you using the strength the individual pages are receiving?
Think about it a moment. What is more appealing? A site that has all it's incoming links pointed at only the main index page and all it's outgoing links going out from one page or a site that has theme specific incoming links pointing to theme related pages on the site and the same going out. I am beginning to see that Google particularly likes sites that are in a sense participating in the web experience. That's why I feel hubs are given such preference in ranking. You don't have to have a hub exactly. Try to recreate the sense of a hub. I know that's going to bring in questions.
This may not agree with what 2_much is seeing but I believe this may be because not many sites are now doing what I'm suggesting. I am doing this and I'm seeing the results of my efforts and in the process am passing up in ranking sites with many more links coming into their sites than mine has. It's taken 6 months but Alta Vista is even beginning to come along, with some very competitive (for my industry) keywords.
That's what is so difficult with theory and research. It takes time to see if your ideas actually work, especially when you don't have many others to compare it to.
>...a /directory/ can actually be treated as though it were a separate site...>
>I'm not sure I agree with that. Google always indents the subdirectories, which shows me they are credited but not as a separate domain.
I just checked, and here's the current run-down:
From within my own site:
/Directory/ (no filename) is not indented
/directory/filename.html is indented
If it is /directory/filename.html and there is no index page it is not indented. It appears that in this case, since there is no index (access is denied) the filename.html is being considered as the primary page for the directory.
Links from internal pages in the root directory are indented.
/Graphics/Tiles/plaintiles/ (no filename) is not indented. They did go three directories deep.
From other domain sites:
If there is only one link showing from another site, it is not indented. Whether it is the index page or an internal page from the other site, by not being indented it seems to be considered the "main" link from the other site.
If several pages from another site are showing as linking, the index page is not indented, and the interior site pages are indented.
Other inbound links
There are links to me from several iVillage web sites. These look like: pages.ivillage.com/membername/
or pages.ivillage.com/membername/filename.html
The first occurrence is not indented; the rest are indented.
All of the domain sites referenced here have unique IP numbers. The iVillage sites share an IP number.
>Canonicals are credited as separate domains so remember to consider them in your strategies.
My current host charges the same for hosting, and assigns a unique IP number to othername.domain.com and there has been no need, so I haven't done it.
I do wonder, however, whether it would make a difference whether or not it has a unique or shared IP number.
Relative to Robert's question, a different matter, I don't know if it's been determined whether inbound links to the index page or internal pages contribute equally to overall site link pop. However, I think it will take some thought over how the indenting/not indenting are being done to determine whether there's an effect with links to the main page or internal pages within a /directory/ (not indented) that has links to it.
>..I do wonder, however, whether it would make a difference whether or not it has a unique or shared IP number. ...>
Has not yet for me, in any way that I can notice or determine. It may count in the future though so perhaps we should be looking ahead.
