I'm not sure what to use, short URL's like www.domain.com/page or www.domain.com/section/subsection/page

Just to mention, /section and /subsection in a combination gives a phrase which I'm targeting.

Does length of the URL important in my case?

I think if it is more level of page and far from root level, it more time for search engine to crawl, you need more links to let search engine to crawl that page.

Does length of the URL important in my case?

No

Just to mention, /section and /subsection in a combination gives a phrase which I'm targeting

And that's pretty much a waste of time as well.

No, The url length does not matter.

Why you take so much ling url. If it is necessary then take it other wise take small.

Thanks for replying.

Let me explain a lil bit more.

I'm targeting phrase for example "gucci shoes". If I use URL like:

http://www.domain.com/gucci/shoes/shoe-model

Would it be better then if I use just:

http://www.domain.com/shoe-model

Just to mention, "shoe model" phrase is also very important for me.

Aha that makes all the difference. But!

still, No

and still, Pretty much a waste of time.

Does Google /gucci/shoes looking like "gucci shoes" or not?

well, it might do, but as the URL has very little value it's really not worth the effort for competitive phrases.

focussing on the title and the body copy will have more effect, especially on conversions.

Yup it's not going to make much of a difference. I would go with the shorter URL and focus on the content on the page.

Skinny

Thanks for the info. I though that URL is the much more important like title...

Google probably does put at a little weight on keywords in urls (especially if it's in the domain name). Probably best would be to use dashes instead of directories e.g. www.site.com/gucci-shoes-modeled.htm

Title is probably the most important on-page factor for SE ranking (See http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors, e.g) Remember that you have to pair on-page optimization with linkbuilding and other off-page seo to rank for even moderately competitive terms, though. (Unless you have the .com of the keyword, as I said before, which Google seems to put a very high value on compared to MSN & Yahoo)

Originally Posted by gopher292

Google probably does put at a little weight on keywords in urls (especially if it's in the domain name).

Nope it does NOT.
It's something that is SO easily demonstrated to be a complete myth.
Run the queries in this post and just count how many of the first 100 have "keyword URLs"

Originally Posted by gopher292

Probably best would be to use dashes instead of directories e.g. www.site.com/gucci-shoes-modeled.htm

Same thread.

It DOES make a difference and this is why:

Anybody that links to your site without giving the link a title, like if they post the URL in a forum or whatnot, like this:

http://www.site.com/gucci/shoes/shoe-model

The URL itself may not have much weight but the anchor text used in external links to your site DOES have an effect. Considering that a not insignificant portion of people linking to you will be using your url as the link text, and all of a sudden those keywords in your url are now keywords in the anchor text pointing at your site.

Whoo Hooo!

Finally somebody "gets" the only time that "keyword URLs" are of any use at all. As anchor text for the links.

provided the forum auto-linker doesn't truncate them as http://www.site.com/...hoe-model of course and the forum staff don't delete the self promo link drop.

off topic but I had a so called SEO company cold call me a couple of months back, the call went like this...

SEO company> We buy domains for the search term you are wanting which will put your site at the top for that search term..

Me> tried explaining that it doesn't work like that...

SEO company> were an SEO company and we know best, your site is a mortgage site so you know we know more than you....blah, blah, blah....

Me> ...... <not sure what they said next but I would imagine it was something like>

SEO company> hello, is there anyone there <says to friend next to him> I think he hung up

Originally Posted by chrishirst

Nope it does NOT.
It's something that is SO easily demonstrated to be a complete myth.
Run the queries in this post and just count how many of the first 100 have "keyword URLs"

Same thread.

Do you work at Google? No? Then stating that something does or doesn't effect Google's serps for sure is misleading. If you have conducted a huge amount of research (3 queries doesn't count in my book) you could still be missing something and/or Google could have changed algo's and/or your datacenter results are different, etc. etc. etc.

I'm not saying dashes are better than underscores. As for your example queries, you tell me how many of those results have "santa", "claus", or both in their urls. #1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11... etc. on my results.


Finally, in my previously referenced document based on 37 seo experts, they rank keyword in domain name and keyword use in page url as significant ("moderate importance") in determining ranking. Choosing between their analysis and your opinion, along with my own experience, I definitely agree with them.

you could still be missing something and/or Google could have changed algo's and/or your datacenter results are different, etc. etc. etc

True but as they were merely a demonstrable point NOT absolute fact, in the vain hope that someone might even do their own testing in their particular marketplace rather than simply accept the guesswork or opinions of SEO "experts"

Applying common sense to it, if the hostname was that important for results wouldn't you expect that for every single search anyone ever did, a "keyworded" domain name would be at the top though?

IMO, it's better to use the short but descriptive url rather than by using section and sub-section.