Keyword repeated in url a bad thing?

[Ma2T]

After reading this forum and getting help from many members I removed my main keyword from the navigation links and it was used a lot, as it could be causing a penalty / filter to kick in.

I and trying hard to get my ranking back, im down to about 20% of previous.

Although I have changed my navigation links, the url that these point to still remain the same.

For example urls like this exist for my site:

keywordsomething.com/keyword/blue-keyword/page-title/

keywordsomething.com/keyword/red-keyword/page-title-name/

I removed all duplicate content, and over use of keywords on the pages / navigation, the only thing that remains is the structure, I have left this as it's a big change, but if it is hurting me, I will make the change.

Could this structure be hurting me in someway?, leading google to believe its spammy or something?

Many thanks for all help, it's very much appreciated.
Cheers

[steveb]

That structure seems like what you should be using.

[tedster]

But I can see why you would at least be suspicious of the url pattern -- it looks like you can have three repetitions of the keyword in one url. That does have a rather "stuffed" aroma to it.

Can't say I've ever run into such a filter/penalty -- but I never had a keyword more than twice in a url either.

[annej]

Just look at the 1-20 serps and you will see sites up there with repeated key words so I don't think it hurts much. Doing it for every page on a site might raise a flag though.

But something else to think about is how your title looks to people browsing through the serps.

Would you go to a site with a title like

Widgeting, Widgeting Lessons, Learn Widgeting
or
Learn to Widget: Fun and Easy Widgeting Methods
?

In the second title not only have you made the page sound more appealing but also you have singular, plural and the ing version. Plus you have 'fun' and 'easy' in there both words searchers might use in terms of widgeting lessons. You get a lot more keyword possibilities.

I guess what I'm saying is that it doesn't seem to matter if you repeat the keyword or not so why bother? There is so much more you can do with a title.

[Ma2T]

Many thanks for the replies people, very much appreciated.

So overall it's not a bad thing,... unless it is over done giving it a stuffed feel which could raise a flag.

Im worried I have raised a flag somewhere, im fact I know I have, lost month i lost 80% of my traffic, and when I search for my own site name, I rank about #8 instead of the previous #1. Site that rank higher are sites that mention my sites name!

Some urls have this keyword 4 times and many 3 times, it is like this on about 90% of my pages urls, about 500pages.

I have been careful to remove duplicate content, meta descriptions, over used keyword in navigation, unique titles etc, the only thin I can think of now is the urls.

I am very tempted to change this, hopefully I can set up some 301 redirect to the new structures, and feed google a new sitemap.

Do you think this is the way to go? or just leave it?

Many thanks again.

[tedster]

You have not mentioned any off-page factors. Are your backlinks coming from a healthy variety of sources -- some unique to you and some from obviously trusted authorities in your field?

[Ma2T]

Tedster,

I have a page rank of 5 and about 5,000 backlinks. I have links to it from my other sites, some of pr5/6. I also have links from a number of websites in my field, as well as some deep links to pages in my site from related forums etc.

All my other sites seem to rank well even if they are only linked to from my other sites I run.

I have changed everything I can think of on the site which might be causing it to rank lower, and the only thing I can think of which might be affecting it is the url. (my other sites do not have urls' in the same way)

Many thanks.

[tedster]

If you have already done "due diligence" on all the issues we discuss here -- including all the multiple url troubles discussed in Duplicate Content - Get it right or perish [webmasterworld.com] then it seems you have only this one thing left.

That's pretty much the conclusion you began this thread with. It is drastic, but so is your situation, I assume.