{"id":1017,"date":"2017-03-02T18:46:37","date_gmt":"2017-03-02T18:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/2017\/03\/02\/study-how-valuable-is-it-to-have-keywords-in-your-domain-url\/"},"modified":"2019-09-20T06:07:07","modified_gmt":"2019-09-20T06:07:07","slug":"study-how-valuable-is-it-to-have-keywords-in-your-domain-url","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2017\/03\/02\/study-how-valuable-is-it-to-have-keywords-in-your-domain-url\/","title":{"rendered":"Study: How valuable is it to have keywords in your domain URL?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There have been a number of debates over the years about the SEO value of having keywords<\/a> in your domain URL.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a 2009 Google Webmaster video<\/a>, Google\u2019s then-head of web spam Matt Cutts confirmed that from a pure ranking standpoint, \u201cit does help a little bit to have keywords<\/a> in the URL\u201d.<\/p>\n

More recently, Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller stated in a Google Webmaster Central office hours hangout<\/a> that keywords<\/a> in URLs are a \u201creally small ranking factor\u201d<\/em>. But small can still make a difference in the grand scheme of things, and there are also compelling reasons from a usability standpoint to include keywords<\/a> where they are relevant.<\/p>\n

A new study by HigherVisibility.com<\/a>, whose findings were shared exclusively with Search Engine <\/a>Watch, set out to investigate the relationship between the top ranked websites in various industries and the inclusion of keywords<\/a> in their URLs.<\/p>\n

It found that nearly two thirds of top-ranking websites use keywords<\/a> in their URLs \u2013 but this can vary significantly from industry to industry. So what can we learn from the findings about the importance of having keywords<\/a> in your domain URL?<\/p>\n

Key findings<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The study<\/a> looked at the top 10 keywords across 10 major industries: business, credit cards, debt, email software, food and beverage, government and trade, hotel, plumbing, software and weight loss. It then analysed the top page results for these keywords and their URLs, to find out how often keywords were used, and in what form.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Overall, 63% of the top ranking sites for each industry \u2013 nearly two thirds \u2013 included keywords in their domain URL. Of the industries analysed, the debt industry had the highest incidence of keywords in their domain URLs, with 76% of URLs in the debt industry using a keyword.<\/p>\n

As an industry, email software was the least likely to use keywords in its domain URL, with less than half \u2013 47% \u2013 of sites in the email software industry using keywords in their URLs.<\/p>\n

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Among the top ranking websites for each industry, seven out of ten sites used a keyword in their URLs, two included a partial keyword \u2013 for example \u2018tp\u2019 for \u2018trade policy\u2019 \u2013 and only one site included no keyword at all. This was the top ranking site for the weight loss industry, although it included the word \u2018diet\u2019 instead.<\/p>\n

The debt industry: keywords galore<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The debt industry had a high level of keyword usage in its domain URLs across various search terms. Out of the top 10 ranked websites for the word \u2018debt\u2019, 100% of sites used the keyword in their URLs.<\/p>\n

Similarly, all top ranking sites for the keyword \u2018debt equity\u2019 used the term in their URLs, while 95% of the top ranked sites for \u2018debt finance\u2019 used the keyword in their domain URLs.<\/p>\n

The keywords least likely to appear in domain URLs for the debt industry were \u2018debt equity loans\u2019 and \u2018credit debt loans\u2019, with 55% of top ranking sites using these keywords in their URLs. This could be because these keywords are longer, making it less likely that they would be used in their entirety.<\/p>\n

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Email software: less is more<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The industry with the lowest incidence of keyword usage in its URLs was email software, although it\u2019s interesting to note that this was also the industry with the longest keywords, with all keywords having at least two words, and some having four or five.<\/p>\n

No set of websites rose above 60% keyword usage in their URLs, and the least-used keyword \u2013 \u2018bulk email software buy\u2019 \u2013 appeared in just 35% of URLs for the top ranked sites. \u2018Newsletter email software\u2019 and \u2018best email software\u2019 were the keywords most likely to appear in URLs, with both keywords appearing in 60% of top ranking URLs.<\/p>\n

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Hotel keywords: regional differences<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The hotel industry had 62% usage of keywords in URLs overall, with seven out of the 10 top ranked sites for the term \u2018hotel\u2019 including the keyword in their domain URLs.<\/p>\n

Popular booking sites like Travelocity have made it to the top of the SERP without needing to include the keyword (although the word \u2018travel\u2019 could arguably be considered a related keyword). Another of the top ranked websites was www.otel.com, which although it doesn\u2019t contain the keyword in its entirety, has all except one letter!<\/p>\n

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\u2018Region-specific\u2019 keywords such as \u2018san hotel\u2019 (i.e. San Francisco or San Diego) or \u2018york hotel\u2019 were more likely to appear in URLs, appearing in 100% and 80% of URLs for their respective keywords.<\/p>\n

At the lower end of the spectrum, \u2018hotel discount\u2019 and \u2018reservations hotel\u2019 were the keywords least likely to appear in URLs, appearing in 35% and 25% of URLs, respectively.<\/p>\n

How can URL keywords help you rank higher?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s clear that there is a link between the websites which rank highly for a certain keyword and whether or not that keyword appears in its URL. However, this is unlikely to be the only factor that determines whether or not a site can rank well.<\/p>\n

As those of us in the industry know, countless other things can contribute to good SEO, and the study by HigherVisibility.com\u00a0was focused on one aspect. But does this mean that you shouldn\u2019t bother with keywords in your URLs? Not at all.<\/p>\n

Rand Fishkin, Founder of Moz, published ‘15 SEO best practices for structuring URLs<\/a>‘ in which he argued that “using the keywords you’re targeting for rankings in your URLs is a solid idea”. Firstly from a readability and usability perspective, having relevant keywords in your URL lets users<\/a> know exactly what they\u2019re getting.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Image: Moz<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Google\u2019s SEO Starter Guide<\/a> also states that, \u201cIf your URL contains relevant words, this provides users and search engines<\/a> with more information about the page than an ID or oddly named parameter would.\u201d In other words, including keywords \u2013 or at least clear and direct information \u2013 in your URL is a best practice.<\/p>\n

Secondly, Fishkin points out, URLs are frequently copied and pasted, and when no anchor text is used in a link, the URL itself will serve as anchor text \u2013 a powerful ranking input. However, he also cautions against keyword-stuffing your URLs or using keyword repetition:<\/p>\n

\u201cGoogle and Bing have moved far beyond algorithms that positively reward a keyword appearing multiple times in the URL string. Don’t hurt your chances of earning a click (which CAN impact your rankings) by overdoing keyword matching\/repetition in your URLs.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Fiskin also cites research<\/a> from the International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining which demonstrated that the URL is one of the most prominent elements searchers consider when deciding which site to click on.<\/p>\n

Again, having clear and relevant information in your URL helps you to earn clicks \u2013 and while click-through rate is still hotly debated as a possible ranking factor<\/a>, once you do manage to rank for a particular keyword, it\u2019s no good if no-one clicks through to your site.<\/p>\n

What about Exact Match Domains?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Exact Match Domains<\/a> (EMDs) \u2013 when the domain of a site exactly matches the keyword that you want to target \u2013 can also be a means of ranking well for your keyword, but use them wisely.<\/p>\n

Most brands will derive their domain from the name of their brand, which might also contain a keyword \u2013 such as glassesdirect.com. But Exact Match Domains are often a sign of a spammy website, and one which Google is on the lookout for.<\/p>\n

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OK, I'll go public (already asked a bunch of folk in private): if you see spammy EMDs, send them my way.<\/p>\n

— Gary \u9be8\u7406\uff0f\uacbd\ub9ac Illyes (so official, trust me) (@methode) November 25, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n