Posted:29/06/2009
Over the
last couple of weeks we have been looking at the various onsite factors your
need to work on for website optimisation. Today we will focus on your website
URLs and what you need to do to ensure your site is properly set up for the
search engines.
The first
thing to remember is that search engines read and interpret the words that they
come across. This is not done in the same way as a person but the principal is
the same. Basically if you use words that mean something to human beings then
they will probably mean something to the search engines.
The Wrong
Thing To Do
I see
hundreds of thousands of websites out there that get it all wrong for SEO and
one of the biggest mistakes they make is the URLs. How many websites have you
seen that when you go to a page the URL that appears in the navigation bar
contains numbers and symbols that mean absolutely nothing to you? When you see
this you get no information about the page you are on and so it is no surprise
that the search engines don't understand this form of coding either.
If your
website is set up in this way then you really want to get it changed as soon as
possible to ensure you can have your website in the best possible state for top
rankings.
What you
Need to Do
Well the
first thing to know is that the search engines put a lot of weight on the URL
of a web page and so it is important to get it right. If you have looked into
search engine optimisation then you will know the search engines use at least
200 factors to rank your website and determine where it should be. One of the
more important factors is the URL of your pages and so this cannot be ignored.
To decide on
your URLs you should do your research first. For each of your pages analyse the
keywords you want to use for each and every page. You should then construct
your URLs based on this. For example on our website if you look at the URLs you
will see some significance in each of them. For example our web development
page contains web development in the URL.
When the
search engines visit your web pages they will read the URL that you have
selected for each page and take note of it. If you use your keywords in the URL
then the search engines will see this and think that this is the topic your web
page is about. Obviously you then need to back this up with the content on each
of your pages. It is really important with the search engines to keep
consistency. It is this consistency that helps the search engines to build
trust with you and confirms to them what each of your pages are about.
So basically
if you start with your URLs and then build your content to match including
titles and headers then you will be a long way towards well optimised web
pages. Never ignore the importance of your URLs as you will see the sites that
appear at the top of the search engines tick all of the boxes and do not ignore
any of the factors.
