Can a URL affect a site's ranking in search results?

Question

Can changing a URL to a more descriptive or briefer URL be part of a Search Engine Optimisation campaign - or does the URL make no difference to SEO? Also any other SEO tips welcome. Thanks.

Answer 1

"does the URL make no difference to SEO?"

It does make a difference. Read for example http://www.seo-blog.com/keywords-in-urls.php and http://www.seo-blog.com/url-update.php

Note the four important points:

1. Keep the urls short.

2. Put important pages in the root directory (immediately after the first slash).

3. Incorporate your keywords in the urls.

4. Use hyphens to separate keywords, never an underscore or space.

"Also any other SEO tips welcome. Thanks."

Read through the Tutorial on the above site carefully!

Good Luck!

Answer 2

A 301 redirect does pass link authority from old URL to the new, so you have done it right. The real issue at hand is the difference between "real pagerank" and "toolbar pagerank". Google recalculates pagerank continuously, and the effects of that recalculation will maintain most of the authority of the old URL passing to the new URL via the 301. Meaning, unless the content changed, you shouldn't see much of a decline in actual rank in SERPS. The issue that worries you is that the pagerank via the toolbar doesn't reflect that PR on the new URL. the reason for this is that Google only updates the toolbar quarterly, but they haven' been religious about that schedule. In 2010 (or maybe it was 2011) they only did one update for the entire year. The next scheduled update is October 31st, but it doesn't mean it will happen on that date. In other words, you did the 301s correctly, and are passing PR authority. You won't see that however until google decides to update toolbar PR.

Answer 3

Hi,

It won't effect a lot, cause those are not so important factors that search engines take in consideration.

Links are far more important. Changing URL you won't see any difference in ranking 90% of the time.

Karl
http://www.freelink.org/smithkarl

Answer 4

Yes it affects your ranking in almost all the search engines. Try to have a medium range url with your important keywords in it. It will also help increase your click through rate.

Answer 5

Yes it can if it contains key words - particularly on yahoo. It also helps with the searches where people try to guess the site url.

Answer 6

Yes. But it's by no means the only way. There's a calculator here for download that can help you increase the connectivity within your site, an important aspect of PageRank

http://www.nimisis.com/software/ranker.php

Answer 7

Yes, it definitely can.