My Last Question Regarding URLs - I Promise...

[GaryVictory]

Hello

I've recently asked the community which urls would be best for a company with a variety of wood flooring products. This question relates to "keywords" within the url which relates to each and every product.

Which would you choose,     1.  a or b?          2. a or b?

1. - Product: CIRO

a. www.thewoodgalleries.co.uk/engineered-flooring/rustic-oak-ciro  - Keyword Match, YES. "Rustic Oak Flooring"

b. www.thewoodgalleries.co.uk/engineered-flooring/ciro  - Keyword Match, NO. "Rustic Oak Flooring"

2. - Product: VOGUE

a. www.thewoodgalleries.co.uk/engineered-flooring/prefinished-oak-vogue  - Keyword Match, YES. "Pr_efinished Oak Flooring"_

b. www.thewoodgalleries.co.uk/engineered-flooring/vogue  - Keyword Match, NO. "Pr_efinished Oak Flooring"_

Although seemingly a basic part of SEO, I find myself revisiting this question time and time again - what is really better for SEO? Shorter URL's or "slightly" longer to achieve keyword match?

_After researching many keywords which we have chosen to use as part of this project, it seems to have any chance of ranking on the first page, the key word (or part of the keyword) must appear within the url. _

I would like to get some "extra" clarification. Thanks for your help!

[RangeMarketing]

Hi Gary,

I would go with the exact keyword matches in these scenarios. I don't see a problem with it because it looks like you are optimizing pages for a very specific product. Whatever you think makes more sense for the user usually makes sense to search engines. I also don't think your URLs are too long.

Did you check out this weeks Whiteboard Friday on Information Architecture? It might clear some things up.

Hope that's helpful!

[Toddfoster]

Hello Gary,

I have to agree with RangeMarketing, in this case the keyword matches are probably your best bet - my only question is in regards to whether you might have multiple brands in the future that produce "Ciro" or "Vogue" in which case it might get a bit heavy and bulky if enough products become available.

As things stand, however, your keyword match options are probably your best bet.