Keywords in both the domain and page name

[Evian]

My domain is my brand name as well as my product name, which together make my company name.

For example: www.abc-widgets.com where 'abc' is my brand, 'widgets' is my product and ABC Widgets is my registered company name.

What is the best way to construct my URLs as I know there is some benefit in having keywords in the page name, but am unsure if I will be overoptimising by having it in the domain name and the page name.

Should I choose:
www.abc-widgets.com/blue-widgets/ or
www.abc-widgets.com/blue/

I would like to go with the first option as 'blue widgets' is the targeted phrase for the page, but would I be penalised for repeating 'widgets' in the page name as it already appears as part of my domain name?

[aristotle]

i don't think anyone knows for sure exactly what can trigger an over-optization penalty for a particular keyword. But your first URL example might be risky because it includes the word "widgets" twice, especially if you also repeat it in the page title, and/or the main header.

[fargo1999]

Second option is better. Google will find/highlight the word 'widgets' anyway and then the URL will be shorter which is also better.

[tedster]

I've got an eleven year old site that has exactly this situation. When the Florida Update [webmasterworld.com] slapped it back badly in 2003, I stopped using "widgets" in the name of new category pages, but I did not change the urls of existing category pages.

Today I can see no difference in ranking between the two types of filenames - none at all. I still avoid repeating "widgets" in the file path for category pages, but that's mostly to have shorter urls. Also, today's search engines no longer need our sites to "yell" the main keywords at them over and over.

I also acknowledge that this is just one site, and combined with other factors there might be a ranking issue for repetition.

[Evian]

Thank you so much for the excellent advise. I will go with option 2 and update this thread once my site has been referenced and gets some ranking.

I've posted another thread about how I should be targetting my keywords [webmasterworld.com...] on the homepage and /blue/ page.

[mrguy]

can trigger an over-optization penalty

According to one of Matt Cutts recent videos, there is no such thing.

So, for those who worship every word Matt spews, there is a direct contradiction to what he is saying because we all know there is such a penatly. You can find a contradiction for almost every other lie he tells to mislead webmasters and seos alike.

Also, I have sites that are fine with the name in the domain and the name if the folder path. I think the penalty gets triggered with to many anchor text links either internally and more recently external.