URL Construction

[94501]

Working on an old site that currently has category urls (that productively rank) like this example:

LakeNameBoating.com/category/705687/rentals

I want to enhance the existing mid page one rank for terms related to "Lake Name Boat Rentals," 301ing the old urls to the new, would you construct the new urls as:

LakeNameBoating.com/lake-name-boat-rentals

or...

LakeNameBoating.com/boat-rentals

And why? It's all for one particular lake with "name" being just an anonymous placeholder example.

Thanks!

[LoganRay]

Hi,

I never recommend URL changes for the purpose of improving rankings. While URL structure is a ranking factor, it's not a big enough one to justify restructuring your URLs for. See this article for more on how insignificant this is as a ranking signal.

[94501]

Hi Logan,

Thanks for the response. I don't know, I've had a lot of success cleaning up non-search friendly urls like this.

In regards to the link above, Google saying "don't bother" may not be the whole story. But thank you for your take on it.

Finally, a cleaner/more purposeful url would have better CTR.

Anyone else?

[MattRoney]

If you're sure you want to use a new URL, I'd go with the second one (LakeNameBoating.com/boat-rentals). The name of the lake being in the domain would make using it again feel redundant.

That's pretty much just personal preference, though.

[94501]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the message.

Would you go with new urls when the old urls are so bad...

LakeNameBoating.com/category/705687/rentals

[MattRoney]

To be honest, I tend to agree with Logan when it comes to changing URLs. That said, if you're fairly sure that simplifying your URLs would help, I'd go with the second option.

[94501]

Okay, well, thanks guys. I kind of thought you'd feel a little stronger about the value of changing urls. Especially since Moz has tools that grade lower for janky urls. My own experience is a messed-up url is not a positive and well worth the slight/temporary decrease in page authority while that gets sorted out.

Anyhoo, thanks again!

[MattRoney]

Fair enough! You're definitely not wrong—the structure you're proposing is absolutely better than the one you're currently using. Whether it's worth it to change things now is up to you. As long as you're aware of the risk and you're confident that it's worth it, I say go for it.

[ECN]

In our experience the keywords in the URL do play (but pales in comparison to other on page signals).  If you have multiple iterations of these sites, why not do some A/B testings to see what woks best.

Acknowledging what the previous posters are saying but if you are going to leverage this, do a little key word research and find out what the predicted searches look like.  We do find that order can make a difference, i.e.  Lake Tahoe Boat Rental vs Boat Rental Lake Tahoe.  Maybe play with the inverted order of the title tags as a contrast.

Again, other signals are much more important but all things being equal we have seen positive movements with keywords in the URL.

[94501]

Here's an update. Went with LakeNameBoating.com/boat-rentals. It all worked out great. Thank you all for the help.

[MattRoney]

Awesome! Glad to hear it!