Directories - will they be searched properly?

[adybee]

Hi,
Working on site at the moment which already has the following html structure;

http*//www.widget.co.uk/brands/75/redwidget/index.html

Is this going to affect the sites position in the SE rankings? I've noticed that the developer has named the directories as all one word and the site can be found under this at the top of the listings for this. Should these directories be renamed for seo purposes? e.g.

http*//www.widget.co.uk/brands/75/red_widget/index.html

Thanks,

Ade

[edited by: caveman at 3:43 pm (utc) on Mar. 13, 2006]
[edit reason] Delinked links. [/edit]

[caveman]

adybee, I personally believe that there is still some value in naming folders for their topics, and doing so by separating the kw's when there are multiple kw's required (sidenote: stay conservative, i.e., don't put three or four kw's in every filename).

G went on record a while back saying that dashes are better than underscores, so when planning a site from scratch, we use dashes.

But all that said, I would not go back and change file structures after a site is live. I don't believe the filenames make THAT much difference, and there's a lot to be lost if you're pages are ranking and you 301 'em all just to hyphenate kw's. My 2 cents.

[ska_demon]

I agree with caveman. I tend to use a hyphen to seperate keywords in files, folders, images and so on. Saying that, I have a site with irrelevant names that does just as well as the keyword optimised sites.

Ska

[pageoneresults]

I tend to use a hyphen to seperate keywords in files, folders, images and so on.

When I have two words to be used in a URI, I always separate them with a hyphen too.

A little over a year ago, I started taking a different approach to this and it has to do with site structure. Instead of...

www.example.com/keyword-phrase/

I might do...

www.example.com/keyword1/keyword2/

But only if I can structure the site in a way where the URI naming structure makes total sense.

For example, if I sell purple widgets, my old style may have been...

www.example.com/purple-widgets/

But now, I might do something along these lines...

www.example.com/widgets/purple/
www.example.com/widgets/fuschia/

In the end, it all comes down to future proofing the URI structure. You need to allow for both vertical and horizontal growth. Once you set it up, you don't want to change it, ever!

[adybee]

Thanks guys,
I agree totally - now that the site is indexed it's not wise to make changes. It's something that we will have to look at with developers when we have a redesign.