What is better for search engines?

Question

I have a CMS site and I have the choice to display the section, category and content item. Is it better to keep the URL short but with less keywords or long packed with keywords?

What is better from these 3 examples? :

http://www.anonsolutions.com/it-services/web-design/site-creation.html

http://www.anonsolutions.com/web-design/site-creation.html

http://www.anonsolutions.com/site-creation.html




Additionally, let's say the keyword is cars. What URL would be better for search engines. Is it better to have the keyword near the canonical URL or trailing at the end?

www.examples.com/vehicle/ford/cars.htm

or

www.examples.com/cars/ford/vehicle.htm

Answer 1

>Is it better to keep the URL short but with less keywords or long packed with keywords?

Short in terms of depth and less keywords.

>Is it better to have the keyword near the canonical URL or trailing at the end?

At the end if you have a pyramid site structure.

In general you need to:

Keep the urls short.

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

Incorporate your keywords in the urls.

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

Answer 2

The middle option is best - as if you have too many URLs at the root, maintenance and organization becomes an issue. You don't want too many levels, as Yahoo and MSN often have difficulty with more levels.

As far as the keyword and keeping it close, according to my testing, it makes no difference in Google, so I would do what is best for you and the display for your visitors.

Answer 3

I like the last site: http://www.anonsolutions.com/site-creation.html

Also, I think cars should go at the end of the URL.

Answer 4

I prefer the last site as well....