The Search Term and The URL

query regarding using search term within the query string.

[Fat_Frog]

Having spent a week in the shadows of this website, reading numerous postings, I can see these are forums that are very much worth being involved with. Hopefully I’ll be able use my SEO experience to add something constructive to these forums as well as sucking knowledge out of the forums. Anyway, enough drivel and praise of this site and on with my sucking…

I believe it is a pretty widely accepted fact that using a search term within the url of submitted page (or page sitting, waiting to be ‘spidered’) can increase the ranking of that page (at least compared to the same page where the search term is not used within the url).

If my search term is ‘fat frog’

www.mywebsite.com/fat_frog.html is good

But

www.fatfrog.com or www.fat-frog.com is better.

However, does anyone have any information / experience in using the search term within a query string?

e.g. www.mywebsite.com/big_spoon.php?param=fat+frog

Would this help the page’s ranking at all?

I guess this also raises the question of which search engines will successfully index a dynamic web page where a query string is provided?

[Ove]

Hi welcome

Here is a good one to start with.

[webmasterworld.com...]

/Ove

[Fat_Frog]

Thanks Ove,

An interesting read, but that thread doesn't touch on the question of whether a keyword within the query string of a url can help a page's ranking.

My guess is that it would have no influence, but I am interested to know whether anyone has tried this and noticed any positive impact.

[caine]

Hi Fat_Frog, welcome to webmasterworld,

your question dose'nt make that much sense, do you mean that the url, has the keyword(s) in it helping the site in the serps regarding the search query; then the answer is yes, along with a couple of hundred do's or dont's that can be slowly amassed, by constant visitation to here, as the info here is like gold dust, and the answers to many a question come from members who have made the errors to know better.

enjoy the forums

[Fat_Frog]

Thanks for your welcome.

My apologies if my question makes no sense. I don't think I am able to word it any more clearly than my first posting. If no-one one else understands my posting, don't worry, I have plenty of other queries to keep me busy!

[bufferzone]

Of course keywords in your own URL's are important, but if you can get external links (pointing to your site) with keywords in them, its even better

[mivox]

If you're talking about "keyword stuffing" an dynamic page generation system, so specific pages are called with keywords as query string variables, I don't think it would help much, if at all...

[Fat_Frog]

Absolutely bufferzone, but does a keyword within the query string of a url help a page's ranking?

Let me offer another example...

Take the url I currently have in my browser:

http://www.webmasterworld.com/ipost.cgi?action=reply&forum=5&discussion=888

Let's say I want to optimise the page generated when this cgi script is invoked for the word 'reply'. (just an example)

Would the fact that the keyword 'reply' exists within the query string of the url help the ranking of this page (all other considerations aside, of which I am aware there are many!)?

As I mentioned in my original post, this also raises the question of which search engines will successfully index a page like this, i.e. one which is generated dynamically.

I am fully aware this is by no means the most critical factor for SEO (I have created many no. 1 positions for my targetted keywords, so have experience in this area), but it was just something I had never really thought about and just recently caught my curiosity.

[WebGuerrilla]

IMHO, any possible benefit you might gain by adding keyword query strings would be outweighed by the fact that the url was dynamic.

[Fat_Frog]

mivox, have you tried this approach, i.e. "keyword stuffing" using dynamic page generation?

I have done this in the past, sort of, by creating html pages where only the keyword changed, as I am sure many here have. In fact I have had a fair amount of success using this approach, especially on Inktomi, Lycos and AV.

I would guess that sumbitting many urls where only the query string varied would be looked upon negatively by most engines? They certainly claim to ban 'similar pages', but the illustration in the above paragraph seems to disprove this, at least for the three SEs I've listed.

[mivox]

The closest I've come is using layout templates extensively in my site designs... each "category" of pages look very much the same, but the content is totally different for each individual page.

I personally don't take many risks when it comes to designing and promoting sites... better safe than banned. ;)

[Fat_Frog]

Very wise! Although I do find it interesting to experiment with a separate IP address and domain name(s).