Google prefers a short descriptive URL

hinksta · Worker Joined: Dec 23, 2005 Posts: 226 Location: UK

I've read that Google prefers a short descriptive URL.

This made me think it would be better to have a topic or category name rather than a number in the URL.
Is this possible?

montego · Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 7:46 am

I would think that having dynamic titles and then ensuring that your relevant links and images have corresponding "title" or "alt" tags. But, I am certainly no expert.

If you wish to pursue, you will need to be very careful to ensure that your re-write rules can easily strip out the necessary "nodes" of information to get back the appropriate URL. For example, imagine what would happen if your category name had a dash "-" in it? Wink

Guardian2003 · Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 9:24 am

I should imagine that getting a 'keyword' into a url may offer an advantage over a number or series of numbers Wink

montego · Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 9:42 am

Guardian2003, I agree, just be careful to do it RIGHT.

Steptoe · Involved Joined: Oct 09, 2004 Posts: 291

What happens if there are 2 with the same name?
ie "my parrot is sick" or 'newbie needs help with'
Numbers and dynamic titles work fine with SEs and if well into their parameters.

hinksta · Worker Joined: Dec 23, 2005 Posts: 226 Location: UK

Quote:

What happens if there are 2 with the same name?
ie "my parrot is sick" or 'newbie needs help with'

I have not as yet had the good fortune to stumble across any “my parrot is sick” topics or categories. Wink

Is this about messing with a-z rather than 0-9 or is it just way over my head?

Guardian2003 · Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 5:07 pm

I think what Steptoe was inferring was that you would have to consider the sceanrio of two users, posting in the same forum with the same subject title to ensure that both formed a unique url

hinksta · Worker Joined: Dec 23, 2005 Posts: 226 Location: UK

Sorry.

I see my error. when I say topic or category I mean category or sub category.

Steptoe · Involved Joined: Oct 09, 2004 Posts: 291

Quote:

I have not as yet had the good fortune to stumble across any “my parrot is sick”

LMAO
hmmm this close enough? ROTFL

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I tend to edit many tiltles

hinksta · Worker Joined: Dec 23, 2005 Posts: 226 Location: UK

Well blow me down with a penny whistle.

Glad to read Ollie is on the mend

kguske · Site Admin Joined: Jun 04, 2004 Posts: 6044

Hi hinksta,

When you say "prefers," what do you mean? Do you mean in terms of deciding whether or not to index the page or in terms of ranking the page? Some say it helps saturation (the number of pages indexed), but few support the idea that it helps ranking. There are too many fake domains with lots of lovely keywords built in...

hinksta · Worker Joined: Dec 23, 2005 Posts: 226 Location: UK

Quote:

When you say "prefers," what do you mean? Do you mean in terms of deciding whether or not to index the page or in terms of ranking the page?

Not specific no either. It just seems to be a subject that keeps cropping up, coupled with the fact that whenever you do a google search, url’s including the search term saturate the top pages regardless of the relevant content included on the site.

Quote:

There are too many fake domains with lots of lovely keywords built in...

If having descriptive url’s helps in any way it’s got to be worth it.

My site has been up for about 3 months, msn never seems to stop visiting but google is a different mater, I’ve gt’d added dynamic titles installed your fantastic nukeseo, submitted the sitemap and still google only list’s my home page. At submitexpress my title, description and keywords all get 100%. Last night I submitted a gt’d static sitemap to google, so fingers a crossed.

guidyy · Worker Joined: Nov 22, 2004 Posts: 208 Location: Italy

I think i had to wait much more than 3 month to have something listed in google.
Funny how MSN pretty much ignore my site, while i have at least a hundred of yahoo bots hanging around everyday..
I actually doubt that crawling indexing, and ranking is a science. I'm getting convinced you need a very hig dose of fortune! LOL
Guido

kguske · Site Admin Joined: Jun 04, 2004 Posts: 6044

Thanks, hinksta. Obviously I'm very interested in this topic and there has been much discussion here about that. Just to clarify, short urls seem to help indexing / saturation, not necessarily descriptive urls.

My experience has been that having a Google sitemap really helps with saturation, especially for a Nuke site. But having dynamic titles, tag titles and META tags that match the content of the page helps increase position and, more importantly, traffic since it's easier for people to find specific content in Google.

Guido, remember that software robots crawl, index and rank your site, not humans. Humans manipulate that software, but it's probably more science than art... One can definitely take steps to improve a site's rankings, but it does take effort - or lots of money to buy advertising, which is a short-term fix. True SEO efforts pay dividends over a much longer period of time.

Without knowing exactly how the search engines work, we are left with the empirical evidence offered by others willing to discuss it. Furthermore, the engines change. That's why it's important to participate in these discussions.

guidyy · Worker Joined: Nov 22, 2004 Posts: 208 Location: Italy

Well,
I'll give you a little example:

Google ranks me at 1st and 2nd place for this keyword: "Recipes Figi" (with quotation)
and show this urls from my site:

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Can someone explain me WHY Question

I also noticed we do not even have a figi (aged tofu) recipe at all, so i really do not get it. Moreover if you search for recipe figi (with no quotation) we are not listed at all Confused

another issue: after i submitted my sitemap, google search site:www.yummyfood.net, reporded (till yesterday) up to 49.000 pages.
Today it says 4530
My latest sitemap is 2243 urls

I'd love to have a scientific explanation! Very Happy

Guido

kguske · Site Admin Joined: Jun 04, 2004 Posts: 6044

We'd all love to have simple explanations... It could be that the robot picked up Fiji from a Yahoo ad, which you display on your page. It may disappear after the next pass by the robots.

But you'll never get any explanation unless someone violates a contract by disclosing the internals of how Google's rankings work. The point is not to leave your rankings to chance or luck.

montego · Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 9:05 am

Yeah, I have pretty much given up on Google. Even with my submitted and verified sitemap, I review its crawl and other statistics, and it gives a specific search criteria example that IT says bring my site up to number 2 in the list. I click on their exact search phrase link, and I am buried several pages down.

I have grown to really despise Google. All the other major search engines have me right up at the top. I have no idea what I did to piss off Google...
Bang Head

hinksta · Worker Joined: Dec 23, 2005 Posts: 226 Location: UK

Code:

IT says bring my site up to number 2 in the list. I click on their exact search phrase link, and I am buried several pages down

same here, my search phrase was 11 after i got to page 15 i gave up looking.

guidyy · Worker Joined: Nov 22, 2004 Posts: 208 Location: Italy

I'm glad i'm not alone Very Happy

But being first for something is not even on the site is outstanding!

montego · Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 10:10 am

Yeah, in my own personal opinion, Google has really messed things up... but, that is just a personal, non-expert, SEO opinion! Laughing

Guardian2003 · Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 10:30 am

I think the answer lies in the Google basement, behind a door with a bronze plaque that read "Marketing".
If you put your ear to the door you can probably hear a conversation like
Employee 1 "I wish there was a way to get more people to invest in adwords"
Employee 2 "Yeah, we could make even more money"
Employee 1 picks up the bat phone "Hello, is that the tech department? Is there a way to periodically screw up everyones ranking...."

guidyy · Worker Joined: Nov 22, 2004 Posts: 208 Location: Italy

Just for the records

I'm back to "normal" Rolling Eyes

site:http://www.yummyfood.net
Results 1 - 10 of about 45,900 from

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I'm speechless....
Guido

montego · Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 1:47 pm

guidyy, ok, so what "magic wand" did you wave? Confused

guidyy · Worker Joined: Nov 22, 2004 Posts: 208 Location: Italy

I wish I could see that in my bank account LOL
Put in 2000 and find you have 49.000 would be very nice! Dance-Y

hinksta · Worker Joined: Dec 23, 2005 Posts: 226 Location: UK

Google has given my gt'd xml sitemap a clean bill of health, I'll just have to wait and see if they want to list the pages.

Back to descriptive url's.
For safety it should only be done on categories and sub categories etc.
Got any ideas how to do this?