"Google Friendly URL"

[quake120]

I was told once that a good way to automatically increase SEO is to have a 'google friendly url,etc...
It seems like maybe he meant certain URLs are inherently friendlier to getting a high rating. Anybody have any suggestions on that?
I would have posted my URL to my page so you could see it, and also an example URL, but since I'm a newbie member, I can't post URLs yet

 

[Linda Buquet]

"I would have posted my URL to my page so you could see it, and also an example URL, but since I'm a newbie member, I can't post URLs yet"

FYI even when you qualify to post links you can't post links to your own site.

Here's what Google says about URL structure but I'm not sure if that's what that person meant.

URL structure - Webmasters/Site owners Help

 

[quake120]

Yeah, right after I posted that question, I saw that you can't post links to your own site. I'll keep that in mind!
Thanks for the link, I think that was the answer I was looking for.

 

[djbaxter]

There are two issues here:

1. keywords in the domain name (e.g., the link in your signature)

2. keywords in the directory structure within the URL (e.g., http://[B]affiliate-marketing-forums[/B].5staraffiliateprograms.com/ or http://5staraffiliateprograms.com/affiliate-marketing-forums/)

3. keywords in the file name or page name (http://affiliate-marketing-forums.5staraffiliateprograms.com/newbie-affiliate-forum/19059-google-friendly-url.html)

A couple of years ago, it appeared that only #1 had any real significance for SEO. However, there are indications that #2 and #3 have gained in importance more recently. Bing especially seems to weight these factors more heavily. I've seen conflicting information as to whether the new Google "Caffeine" puts additional weight on #2 and #3 but I suspect that it has gradually increased in importance even for the old Google.

 

[Niche48]

Agree with all of the above. There is a lot of SEO benefit in keywords in URL [some of my websites URLs are keyword focussed] but what about branding?

Just a thought but it's funny that the most popular websites are branded e.g amazon, facebook, twitter. Google!

Just a thought

 

[djbaxter]

Yes, branding is also important. Here the branding is in the 5staraffiliate part of all URLs.

 

[PHPGator]

I noticed a difference on Google in my ecommerce stores when I fixed the URL's. I did some other things at teh same time like fix titles, etc. However, I still think this was a contributing factor.

Instead of domain/product.php?id=1
I started mod_rewriting URLs like domain/product/new-computer

The one said nothing about a new computer, the second one does. Google noticed.

 

[price engines]

As an aside but 'on topic' point, I often get asked about choosing a domain name and whether it should have dashes in it etc or not. Not from an seo point of view but a 'will the potential visitor be able to type it in correctly' point of view.

Give that the majority of traffic is going to arrive at your site by following a link on a search engine or other web page, I don't think it really matters.

Unless you're planning to do all your advertising on the radio or tv of course.

What say you?

Jonathan.

 

[djbaxter]

Furthering the comment by price engines, as to the question of dashes vs. underscores vs. no separator in keywords for URLs. Google has now clarified this (I'll find the reference later): you should use dashes.

Here's a reference from 2005, a Matt Cutts post: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/