How Important Is Your URL In Search?
Your URL is more than just a keyword-based ranking tool. It can be a useful ranking edge if you use your keyword in the right way. But it’s so much more than that. It’s also a branding item. And if you use it as both a branding item and a ranking tool then it’s even more powerful. Well, it may have just become even more important. According to Marketing Pilgrim, Google tweaking is Suggest feature:
Google’s also added navigational suggestions–so if you start typing the name of a company or brand, you’ll more likely see the actual URL appear in your suggested items.
This is actually a useful feature, but I think it will have a much more powerful effect if people are typing in a keyword and Google recognizes an authoritative brand based on that keyword. For instance, let’s say you own http://www.widget.com (made up for this example) and a searcher queries “widget”. Will Google Suggest show the url http://www.widget.com in its results to be more helpful to searchers? That’s what it seems like Andy Beal is saying.
How important do you see your URL now?
4 Responses to “How Important Is Your URL In Search?”
The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Journal is Written by SEO Expert:
Nick Stamoulis
Tel - 781-999-1222
nick@brickmarketing.com
Brick Marketing - SEO Company
Having a quality keyword in your URL can be really helpful in SEO. If you have a new website with a good keyword in your URL, it may help overcome some of the growing pains associated with early rankings for new sites.
In addition, having a keyword in the URL may help make up for a lack of brand recognition early on.
@Agent SEO – This is very true! There is a balance of a very good keyword friendly URL and long term brand. Having a domain that overdoes it by keyword stuffing is not effective as well…
I have been seeing this in the local search quires. But not as an absolute like most things in Google’s local search arena. I do feel that this will play a role when added to the seo mix for your clients.
Is Branding the new authority?
I think it will play a major role as Google tries to separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak!
@Idigital SEO – Thanks for the comment and reading! It should be interesting to see how Google continues to factor in brand and authority…