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The Name Game: Using Keywords in URL Filenames

blog.freshegg.com — An often overlooked aspect of site design and SEO that can clearly bring benefits.

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  • katien124, on 12/07/2007, -1/+9The bit about naming files sensibly is so true. I noticed that when I changed my file names from, say, copywritingbrighton.html to copywriting_brighton.html, my site hopped up a place or two in Google. It's definitely one of the many things you can do to improve a site's visibility.
    • Mononuclear, on 12/07/2007, -0/+5some search engines don't like _ but if you use - it counts as a space. so copywriting-brighton.html is an even better name for SEO.
    • AuburnTigers, on 12/07/2007, -3/+1Nice plug.
    • daye, on 12/07/2007, -0/+2some early UNIX systems don't like the '-', while some early Windows systems don't like the '_' for technical reasons.
      However, there are many more otherwise recent but moron systems that don't them for no reason. After a while, you just get tired, and do not use them at all.
  • doubleharduk, on 12/07/2007, -7/+0I often change page names to suit the KeyPhrase that I am looking to attack. I have plenty of examples to prove how fruitful the practise can be.
  • pinetree, on 12/07/2007, -2/+6It is silly that the search engines pay attention to words in the filename part of the URL. What would they really hope to find there that isn't already in the tag? The end result is that people bend and twist their CMSs to put titles into URLs when it would be more efficient (i.e. faster database query) to simply use a page ID number. Then someone finds a typo in the title of a page and the CMS changes the URL when the title is corrected, so you either get a dupe or the old URL breaks. What a pointless mess.
    • pinetree, on 12/07/2007, -1/+2That was supposed to say "...that isn't already in the <title> tag?" Digg ate the title tag that I typed.
    • d03boy, on 12/07/2007, -0/+2you can have both if you write a script to simply parse the id out... for instance

      hxxp://website.com/articles/42/the-title-of-my-article where 42 is the ID of the article and the script just ignores the title
      • pinetree, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1You'll still have dupes (i.e. multiple URLs with the same content) in that case if you change the title. The fact that "the script just ignores the title" proves my point -- people are stuffing URLs full of junk just to bait the search engines. If search engines weren't rewarding people for such nonsense, we would have short, sensible URLs.
  • HunterTV, on 12/07/2007, -0/+21Well, it worked for 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0.html
  • LikeButta, on 12/07/2007, -6/+1SEO is bad...mmmkay
  • Mononuclear, on 12/07/2007, -0/+5This isn't a problem with mod_rewrite where you can have clean easy to understand links without tons of hard to understand variables and still use dynamic database driven websites. IE: this article http://blog.freshegg.com/2007/12/06/the-name-game- ... I doubt that the directory structure is how it ison the server but what appears as directories here are just variables sent to a dynamic page.
  • thydzik, on 12/07/2007, -0/+6the internet 101
  • Urraco, on 12/07/2007, -0/+0Google search is all about context, not just words. The title, file name, just about everything involved with the page to describe that page is put into their context algorithm, this is why people use them, because it works. The article isn't fooling the search engine... since the page is about van leases. A similar page not about van leases would likely not have that much effect with the same page name change.
  • WaterMedia, on 12/07/2007, -2/+1This is SOOO true. And not just file names of html items. Images? Check. Javascript? Check.

    In three months I was able to dominate Google by replacing keywords into these files. I'm now number one in many searches with over 2 million - 5 million results. This only took about a month to come true as well.

    I'd recommend anyone with a site to give it a try.
  • tfirma2000, on 12/07/2007, -0/+12Wait, why is this story getting dugg? I don't get it... This seems spammy to me -- a story about something that everyone who does SEO already knows, with very little detail in the story, and a convenient link to.... a VAN LEASING site at the end of the article.
    • WShadow, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1You have a point. The link kind of gives it away.
    • brsly, on 12/07/2007, -0/+0This story could also be titled:
      How to use digg to increase search results on a van leasing web site.
  • Jayphen, on 12/07/2007, -1/+1One very important note I have to make is that Google sees keywords separated with underscores as a single word or phrase, but words separated with dashes as separate keywords. So for the example in the article, van_leasing.htm should optimally be named van-leasing.htm for greater effect.
  • AaronCo, on 12/07/2007, -0/+8Welcome to SEO 1999. Today's lesson: latent semantic indexing and you.
  • darnit, on 12/07/2007, -1/+8Buried for obvious client spam via an attempt to use another "secret" SE technique of anchor text in links....see his attempt at the bottom of the article.
    /for shame.
  • cplusplus, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1Yeah the "professional practice of SEO". Like professional sex trade workers.
    • Tippis, on 12/07/2007, -0/+3Now now. No need to make any nasty comparisons.
      Those professional sex trade workers actually provide a useful service that people enjoy.
  • Sikwondo, on 12/07/2007, -1/+0Why are all the norberts slating this post? It is obviously meant to give some tips to those who aren't seo minded and yes alot of people know this already, but the article has highlighted there are also many who don't.

    Yes it is advantageous to include Keywords in URLs, for both search and usability and the article doesn't claim that it will propel you to new magical heights in search rankings, but it is an important part of a bigger picture.

    This article won't be relevant to everyone, and if it isn't to you then jog on, instead of slating something that alot of people will find useful.
  • omhat, on 12/07/2007, -0/+0and think if someone links to a site with the key in the URL
  • inlove, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1The key phrase on the page "Error establishing a database connection" should be included in the URL, eh?
  • bigalreturns, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1Finally, an article on SEO makes it to digg front page...oh wait, it's crap, and a poor smokescreen for spam.
    It doesn't even mention mod_rewrite, by far the most effective url manipulating tool. Now I of course expected the "SEO is evil" comments, but URL rewriting is very valuable for usability as well. Say I'm at my profile : /profile/bigalreturns and want to check out the profile of allseoisevil? I can just type in /profile/allseoisevil, rather than search/navigate my way through the site. Quicker, easier and less bandwidth.
  • monsieurflibble, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1Can we not have these SEO articles in their own section? Then I can ignore them for the spam that they are.

    Seriously, is *every* *single* *article* on SEO really worthy of being on Digg?
    • doubleharduk, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1Surely that means the whole of Digg being placed in the SEO section. The whole concept of Digg is a spammers paradise.
  • Kailash.Nadh, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1People have been doing this since 2000.
    • doubleharduk, on 12/07/2007, -1/+0People have also been having sex since the year 2000, but sex still gets talked about, an irrelevant comment.
  • JasonCox, on 12/07/2007, -0/+2Yeah, no one wants a 1000 character long URL.
  • ThunderChops, on 01/22/2008, -0/+0Wondering why SEO articles do so well on Digg? Because they're only here for SEO in the first place. The SEO chaps have formed a network and all Digg one another's submissions religiously, practically guaranteeing a front pager (albeit short-lived).
  • willatin, on 02/15/2008, -0/+0Before reading this, I had done some optimization of my site and changed my domain from www.specializedfloorcar.com to www.stone-tile-grout.com as part of the program, and I must say that it made and improvement. On one of the other keywords, "leaky shower" we ranked #9 on Yahoo in about two weeks.
  • KeepItLucid, on 03/07/2008, -0/+0Switching from database driven URL's to flat URL's is all it took for my shopping cart driven e-commerce website to go from obscurity to page 1 in the major search engines.

    I've had shopping cart providers since try to tell me that "it's not that big a deal" or "it doesn't make that much difference". Of course, these comments were from providers who did NOT use flat URL's with their software.

    Yes, it makes a big difference. And, no, not every knows about it.
  • mendigg, on 03/13/2008, -0/+0Buried for obvious client spam via an attempt to use another "secret" SE technique of anchor text in links....see his attempt at the bottom of the article.
    /for shame. My site: http://7007.com.ua
  • sexylin6, on 04/24/2008, -0/+0lcd monitors-http://www.monitorsnow.com/
    to simply use a page ID number. Then someone finds a typo in the title of a page and the CMS changes the URL when the title is corrected, so you either get a dupe or the old URL breaks
    http://www.techfav.com/
    cheap laptops-http://www.cheaplaptopsstore.com/
  • gmi123, on 07/18/2008, -0/+0See latest seo updates & tips
    http://www.webmarketingindia.net/wordpress/
  • xpirtdesign, on 08/25/2008, -0/+1great post, lots of good info, you have my digg.

    some cool sites:
    http://optimization-tips.xpirtdesign.com
    http://affordable-website-designs.com
    http://services-optimization.xpirtdesign.com
  • possum21, on 09/08/2008, -0/+0Yes these are some of the core seo principles used by search engine specialists. Other seo off-page optimization can be done using software such as the new bruteforceseo (news release about it http://www.prlog.org/10111803-can-bruteforceseo-tu ... ) There are just so many options with seo that can help a great deal.
  • webmarketing56, on 09/14/2008, -0/+0I have seen an increase in the importance of key words in the URL as far as rankings is concerned. Just key words in the URL are not enough to give you a top ranking and other SEO techniques will need to be applied to a web site but I do think the URL is important.

    "seminar" as a key word... (these links don't go anywhere... just an example)
    Base URL - namehereseminar.com
    Subdomain keywords - http://seminar.namehereseminar.com/
    Directory - http://seminar.namehereseminar.com/seminar/
    Page names - http://seminar.namehereseminar.com/seo-seminar.htm
  • xpirtdesign, on 09/28/2008, -0/+1Here's an article that I wrote up. I basically tested this issue and listed the results of my experience.
    http://xpirtdesign.com/seo-tips/?p=66

    Hope this helps
  •  

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