So I understand that titles are very important in optimising your site for
search engines...but what about the url itself?

which is better (or no difference)?

www.mysite.com/products/my_product_name

or

www.mysite.com/products/m_pro_na (abbreviated) (in other words..no
one would ever type this into a search engine...but may well type the words my,
product and name all at the same time into a search engine.

Thanks

"cripaustin" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:g93koo$en1$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> So I understand that titles are very important in optimising your site for
> search engines...but what about the url itself?
>
> which is better (or no difference)?
>
> www.mysite.com/products/my_product_name
>
> or
>
> www.mysite.com/products/m_pro_na (abbreviated) (in other
> words..no
> one would ever type this into a search engine...but may well type the
> words my,
> product and name all at the same time into a search engine.

I'm not sure I understand the question. Of course the URL with the actual
keywords in it is better than the URL with nonsense/abbreviated words. Or is
that not what you're asking?

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no that is what i am asking. so does it help significantly?

because i am rebuilding a site from a terrible site...the old site has/had
urls with abbreviated words. So instead of educational sponge packs..it would
be edsponge.html. Iv been told I should keep the urls the same for the product
sections. So paint accessories..was and will always be paintaccess/paintaccess
(for some reason, the orignal designer did what should be root site pages, a
level down, in a different folder. Should I forget what they tell me...about
how the site has got good search engine recognition...(even with
edsponge/edsponge.htm , etc)...or forget that and start again..eith
educational_sponge_packs.htm and try and build up and even better search engine
recognition?
Thanks
Hope you understand.

"cripaustin" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:g93quj$mp3$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> no that is what i am asking. so does it help significantly?
>
> because i am rebuilding a site from a terrible site...the old site has/had
> urls with abbreviated words. So instead of educational sponge packs..it
> would
> be edsponge.html. Iv been told I should keep the urls the same for the
> product
> sections. So paint accessories..was and will always be
> paintaccess/paintaccess
> (for some reason, the orignal designer did what should be root site pages,
> a
> level down, in a different folder. Should I forget what they tell
> me...about
> how the site has got good search engine recognition...(even with
> edsponge/edsponge.htm , etc)...or forget that and start again..eith
> educational_sponge_packs.htm and try and build up and even better search
> engine
> recognition?
> Thanks
> Hope you understand.

Ok, well, there are two different issues here.

1. Because it's an existing site that has some search engine placement
already for the existing URLs, it makes sense not to get rid of those URLs,
since you'd lose whatever foothold you had for those URLs in the search
engines. But you could duplicate the pages, like this:

edsponge/edsponge.htm - Make this into a redirect page to
educational_sponge_packs.htm.

educational_sponge_packs.htm - Make this the page that was formerly
edsponge.htm.

2. Having keywords in your URLs will probably help somewhat with search
engine positioning, so if you want to make use of every tactic, it might
make sense to change them, since "edsponge" will never be searched on,
whereas "educational sponge" might.

Hope that helps,


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thank you . yes . this does help.
I've never learnt how to do a basic redirect on entry to a page system.
Is it easy? Perhaps you know a good link? Thanks.

"cripaustin" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:g95qe1$acu$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> thank you . yes . this does help.
> I've never learnt how to do a basic redirect on entry to a page system.
> Is it easy? Perhaps you know a good link? Thanks.

Yes, it's very easy. Create the page that people will see for a second or
two - it can be blank, or have a message like "Redirecting...".

In DW, go to Insert > HTML > Head > Refresh. In the Refresh dialog box, fill
in the number of seconds of delay you want (can be zero) and the URL you
want the user to be sent to.


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..oO(cripaustin)

>So I understand that titles are very important in optimising your site for
>search engines...but what about the url itself?

Important.

> which is better (or no difference)?
>
> www.mysite.com/products/my_product_name
>
> or
>
> www.mysite.com/products/m_pro_na

A question for you as a user - which one is better to read and to
memorize? There you'll have your answer.

Build sites for users, not for search engines. If a site is userfriendly
with usable, accessible content and appropriate, "speaking" URLs, it
will almost automatically be useful for search engines as well.

Micha

..oO(P@tty Ayers ~ACE)

>"cripaustin" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
>news:g95qe1$acu$1@forums.macromedia.com...
>> thank you . yes . this does help.
>> I've never learnt how to do a basic redirect on entry to a page system.
>> Is it easy? Perhaps you know a good link? Thanks.
>
>Yes, it's very easy. Create the page that people will see for a second or
>two - it can be blank, or have a message like "Redirecting...".
>
>In DW, go to Insert > HTML > Head > Refresh. In the Refresh dialog box, fill
>in the number of seconds of delay you want (can be zero) and the URL you
>want the user to be sent to.

You should know better, Patty! Real redirects are done on the HTTP level
with proper status codes (e.g. 301 - Moved Permanently). (Ab)using the
meta element doesn't help the users nor the search engines, it just
makes things worse.

On Apache servers the correct way is to setup an .htaccess file with
RedirectPermanent directives for all the old ULRs that should be
redirected.

Micha

"Michael Fesser" <netizen@gmx.de> wrote in message
news:0j3eb4dse2jhmalfiuit4s9ve60fgi8t4q@4ax.com...
> .oO(P@tty Ayers ~ACE)
>
>>"cripaustin" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
>>news:g95qe1$acu$1@forums.macromedia.com...
>>> thank you . yes . this does help.
>>> I've never learnt how to do a basic redirect on entry to a page system.
>>> Is it easy? Perhaps you know a good link? Thanks.
>>
>>Yes, it's very easy. Create the page that people will see for a second or
>>two - it can be blank, or have a message like "Redirecting...".
>>
>>In DW, go to Insert > HTML > Head > Refresh. In the Refresh dialog box,
>>fill
>>in the number of seconds of delay you want (can be zero) and the URL you
>>want the user to be sent to.
>
> You should know better, Patty! Real redirects are done on the HTTP level
> with proper status codes (e.g. 301 - Moved Permanently). (Ab)using the
> meta element doesn't help the users nor the search engines, it just
> makes things worse.

Abusing? Come on. :-) It does help the user - certainly does no harm -
and causes no problems for search engines.

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"Michael Fesser" <netizen@gmx.de> wrote in message
news:i73eb4d320vjshb44erfothbcsrsivelia@4ax.com...
> .oO(cripaustin)
>
>>So I understand that titles are very important in optimising your site for
>>search engines...but what about the url itself?
>
> Important.
>
>> which is better (or no difference)?
>>
>> www.mysite.com/products/my_product_name
>>
>> or
>>
>> www.mysite.com/products/m_pro_na
>
> A question for you as a user - which one is better to read and to
> memorize? There you'll have your answer.

I disagree. How often is that full internal URL going to be read or
memorized? My honest guess would be, for this type of site, zero, never.

> Build sites for users, not for search engines. If a site is userfriendly
> with usable, accessible content and appropriate, "speaking" URLs, it
> will almost automatically be useful for search engines as well.

That's really only partially true. In heavy competition for search engine
positioning, a well-coded, user-friendly site is only a small start.


--
Patty Ayers | www.WebDevBiz.com
Free Articles on the Business of Web Development
Web Design Contract, Estimate Request Form, Estimate Worksheet
--