Benefits of adding keywords to site structure?

[BrianAlpert78]

Hello fellow Mozzers,

This is kind of a hypothetical, but it might have implications for future projects. Do you think there would be any benefits (or drawbacks) to placing pages of a site into a directory named after a keyword?

For example, if I had a local store that sold hockey equipment, and "hockey", "equipment", and "hockey equipment" were the main targets being optimized for, would it be better (assuming the actual pages were the same) to structure the site as

• hypotheticalwebsite.com/about-us/
• hypotheticalwebsite.com/hockey-skates/
• hypotheticalwebsite.com/hockey-sticks/
• hypotheticalwebsite.com/blog/

or

• hypotheticalwebsite.com/hockey-equipment/about-us/
• hypotheticalwebsite.com/hockey-equipment/hockey-skates/
• hypotheticalwebsite.com/hockey-equipment/hockey-sticks/
• hypotheticalwebsite.com/hockey-equipment/blog/

Additionally, would any of this change if the root domain or the individual pages ALSO used those keywords (or if both of them used it)?

• pseudonyms-hockey-gear.com/hockey-equipment/skates/
• pseudonyms-penalty-box.com/hockey-equipment/hockey-skates/
• pseudonyms-hockey-gear.com/hockey-equipment/hockey-skates/

I've got a hunch that some of these are overkill, but I'm not sure where the scale tips from helpful to negligible to actively counterproductive.

Thanks, everyone!

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there,

To me, the first batch seem much more natural and less spammy. I can't figure out why you would want to put an "About Us" under "hockey-equipment".

Take a look at these couple of resources:
Information Architecture for SEO
URL Best Practices

My fear here is that you could potentially overdo your keywords in your URLs and trip spam filters, so really think about what's important to the structure and categories of the site, as well as the user experience and how users are searching to get to your site.

This answer may be a bit broad, but there some fundamental issues you should read into quick to better guide your structure so you're not in trouble down the road. Hope this helps!

[Houses]

Got to agree with Patrick - the first URL's look normal and the others look simply odd.

Remember your site is for humans as well as search engines.

[BrianAlpert78]

Thanks, this is what I had figured, but I wasn't 100% sure.

I suppose using /hockey-equipment/about-us/ was a bit of an exaggerated example, but what about a more subtle/practical implementation? Specifically, do you think it would make any noticeable difference between using, say...

• domain.com/about-us/ (and /contact/ and anything else that's obviously NOT equipment)
• domain.com/hockey-equipment/skates/ (and /sticks/ and other stuff that is actually equipment)

vs

• domain.com/about-us/ (and /contact/ and anything else that's obviously NOT equipment, same as above)
• domain.com/hockey-skates/ (exact same page as would be on /hockey-equipment/skates/)
• domain.com/hockey-sticks/

I assume that at this level, it becomes a "6 of one, half a dozen of the other" situation, but again, not 100% sure.