User talk:Positioning

Search Engine Positioning & URL Structure www.positioning-search-engines.com Sep 1st 2006, George Toma

Is URL structure, or your web address, important to search engine positioning?

This is one of the most debated questions in the search engine positioning field today. It is debated because one side points to the fact that for almost any keyword, pages with top positioning in the search engine results almost invariably contain important keywords in the URL.

Go on. Try it for yourself and you’ll see it’s true.

However, the other side contends – and quite rightly – that correlation does not equal causation. In other words, in an industry where the engines are trying to match high search engine positioning with highly relevant content, you will invariably find keyword-rich URLs littering the first page. But that is only because these sites contain such focused, properly cross-linked content.

Let’s say you’re searching for “Disney videos”. Well, the search engine would be crazy not to put www.DisneyVideos.com up on the first page of its results because this site contains the largest volume of the highly focused Disney video content you are searching for.

So, Does URL Structure Effect Search Engine Positioning? I am quite confident is saying that the short answer is “Yes.” And the long answer is “Yes, but…”

As with almost everything, there are deeper issues to understand here. URL structure does affect search engine positioning, but it is what your URL communicates about your keyword focus, potential for cross-linked information and search engine visibility that matters most. Take a look at the following example:

www.site.com/media/images/2006/jpeg/company_logo.jpg vs. www.site.com/images.asp?image_no=25 URL structure #1 is more likely to attain high search engine positioning for several reasons:

1.   It clearly states, to both the web visitor and search engine, that this site contains images for media, that there are current 2006 images available (but likely also links to other years), that there are jpeg format images available (but likely also links to other formats) and that this image is of the company logo. Therefore, if you are searching for media images of “Site” company, this site likely has lots of related keyword focused, cross-linked content. 2.   URL structure #1 is also likely very easy for search engine spiders to navigate, making it rank high on the search engine visibility scale. If a search engine cannot find a page because it is only available as the result of a search query made on your site – like URL #2 – then not only will it not rank well… it may not even be listed in the search engine at all! In general, search engines do not like to list search results in their search results. It’s a little redundant. How to Structure Your Site for High Search Engine Positioning The most important thing you can do is marry your information architecture with your interface. In English, that means marrying how your information is organized to how your users gain access to it.

For example, let’s say your information is split into several categories with several pages under each category. However, most of your pages are only accessible through an internal search engine. Your information organization is not married to how users gain access to it and that spells trouble for your search engine positioning.

If you do group together web pages under categories and give access to your users in this manner, two very good things should happen almost automatically for you:

1.   Pages within each category will be cross-linked well, making it easy for users to find all the information they want in that category. 2.   Keyword focus among the pages in that category will be heightened. Search engines love URL structures that are set up in this manner and ultimately it will help lead to higher search engine positioning.