Keywords in url - sub files

spaces, dashes, underscore, does anything help?

[NLightN]

When going after a sub set of keywords, is there a url format that is successful in Serps?

For example, if my main keyword is blue widgets, and I sell round, square, and triangle widgets, is there a benefit to a certain format for the url?

IE:

www.blue-widgets.com/round-widgets.htm

www.blue-widgets.com/square_widgets.htm

www.blue-widgets.com/trianglewidgets.htm

Assuming that the root domain is consistant, do engines read one format for secondary keywords with a preference?
Thanks all.
NLightN

[designhaus]

I would go for this one
www.blue-widgets.com/round-widgets.htm

do a search and use the highlight tool provided in the google toolbar and you will see it picks up keywords when your files are names with a dash inbetween the keywords. DONT be spammy and name your files ridiculous names line round-location-size-name-widgets.htm .... you will obviously get penelised for this.

[PhraSEOlogy]

I use long file names all over one of my sites (2500+ pages) and google loves it. Site PR5 with PR3-PR4-PR5 on internal pages.

I have a similar site in the UK that uses truncated file names and it is ranked much the same.

I am not advocating spammy file names, I am just pointing out that I have not seen any penalty for using longer file names.

[NLightN]

Thanks for your insight. Certainly makes sense, and much appreciated.

NLightN

[mona]

NLightN, absolutley use either underscores or dashes to separate your KWs. This issue has been discussed many times around here, and I have yet to see any definitive word about which one works better. I think it's just personal taste, I prefer underscores.

[warlordbb]

Look at Roomy's post (near the bottom) on this page:

[webmasterworld.com...]

Google is now highlighting the search terms in the URL even if there are no underscores or hyphens.

Does this mean underscores and hyphens aren't necessary anymore?

[mona]

>Does this mean underscores and hyphens aren't necessary anymore?

Who knows? I'd still use them. Just because they're highlighting them in the SERPS, that doesn't mean it's part of the algorithm. Plus I just think it's easier to find pages in a directory when they're named this way. Another reason I chose underscores instead of hyphens.

[sidyadav]

I use a hyphen in my domain (www.blue-widgets.com), doesn't work though. Donno, it maybe the PR or somethin.

Sid

[tedster]

About the hyphen versus underscore question -- Google does not see the underscore as a seperator. You can test this by using DMOZ as a test bed, since they use underscores all over the place in their URLs.

Do a search on "Open Source" site:dmoz.org and you'll see the right pages returned, but the keywords are NOT bolded in the URL. Even with the new stemming engine, underscores are apparently seen as a character, and not a seperator. Google search engineer Matt Cutts confirmed this at PubCon V in London last fall, and it still looks the same to me.

I use hyphens.

[georgeek]

designhaus

....round-location-size-name-widgets.htm .... you will obviously get penelised for this.

Obviously? Evidence please...

[NLightN]

I've yet to see a penelty for the use of extensions including more than two hyphens. In fact, within the market vertical I optimize for, I tend to see the higher ranking sites using multiple hyphens in both the root domain, and the file extension with high success. This is within Google of course, very few make it into dmoz.

Thanks all!
NLightN

[txen]

What about using . (point) as a separator in a url?
I mean make name like:

www.blue-widgets.com/round.widgets.htm

or even

www.blue-widgets.com/round.widgets-square.widgets.htm

[nuevojefe]

Off but not too off topic, I'm about to do a site structure tonight, and I would be really happy if someone had a definitive word on:

If you have www.keyword1-keyword2.com, will making your directories, sub directories and file names use the words keyword1 or keyword2 trigger any filters/penalties, etc.?

I mean if you were targetting "example foo bar" as your key phrase, and www.example-foo.com was your domain, would www.example-foo.com/bar/ or www.example-foo.com/bar.html be better/safer than www.example-foo.com/example-foo-bar/ or www.example-foo.com/example-foo-bar.htm?

Thanks

[DavidT]

There's no definitive word on it, it's just opinion. Maybe for Yahoo there is some advantage in going heavy on the keyword-keyword thing. Google is a more mysterious, changeable, beast.

I have never seen any _harm_ arising from keyword-keyword all over the place it just looks a bit crap.

[vaniaul]

hey tedster

Do a search on "Open Source" site:dmoz.org and you'll see the right pages returned, but the keywords are NOT bolded in the URL.

Its not bold of you search with quotes, but without quotes the keywords in URL certainly gets highlighted. Is it because Google doesnt really rate the Keywords in URL.