Search engine friendly URLs

[limens]

I'm going to create some new content for my site, I'm trying to decide on the best search engine friendly format. Namely, is it ok to use a subdirectory or should I keep all content on root level?

Is the SEO effect of either of these URLs superior to the other?

domain.com/cooking/lasagna.php vs domain.com/lasagna.php

[cfguti]

If your URLs are sort, the best way is to use domain.com/cooking/lasagna.php, this is the best way to optimize for lasagna and target secondary keywords cooking related.

Bye.

[limens]

this is what the length of URL would be in reality:

www.domaindom.com/cooking-tasty-food/lasagna_with_cheese.php

but if there is a good SEO reason, I could just put it on the root:

www.domaindom.com/lasagna_with_cheese.php

[cfguti]

The second one is the best, because sort URLs are more relevant than long ones, but the best practices are http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/url

Use - instead of _ to separate keywords

[KeriMorgret]

Hi Limens,

It is certainly fine to use a subdirectory, and can really make sense to help organize your content. It's also helpful in your analytics if you want to see who went to the blog area of your site versus the product area of your site.

It would help to know a little more about your site, but I would choose neither of the above. I'd actually go with something like domain.com/cooking/lasagna/. Note that I'm not including the .php. If you later switch to a different language, you won't have to redirect from php to asp or html, etc.

I wouldn't stuff your subfolder in your URL with keywords like the tasty-food in your example below. It just makes your URL longer and look a little more spammy to the human eye.

[ebenthurston]

I like this analysis and recommendation.

The only other thing I would say (if it's a page) is drop the trailing slash on the recommended URL to this:
domain.com/cooking/lasagna

That makes it clear it's a page as opposed to a directory, and it also looks cleaner to the human eye.

Here's some more complete discussion on the trailing slash topic:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/04/to-slash-or-not-to-slash.html