zarahschaffer asked
Member (0 upvotes)

SEO rankings with URL’s

Hi, I have a question regarding SEO rankings with URL’s. My understanding is URL’s have minimal influence on rankings on Google, correct? I have sites with hundreds of articles and while they’re organized in-site for viewer navigation, they aren’t in their URL’s. Which means, all my URL’s are like this:

www.domain.com/article-name

However, if I were to implement categories for all my articles, would it help my rankings? Or hurt them (shorter URL’s generally do better than longer ones)? For example, I can do this:

www.domain.com/category/article-name

Which of the two URL’s will be better for SEO rankings purely from Google’s POV? Or there will be no difference? Thanks!

#seo#url

KnowOneSpecial
Moderator (84 upvotes)

Go with the shorter url as a general rule of thumb.

But on the other hand, page urls that use keywords do perform better.

My suggestion:

Run a A/B test on a select few urls.

Choose a couple of urls on your site. Track their rankings for a 3 weeks to establish a baseline.

After you know their expected rankings are you move them into a category. Give it at least 4 weeks or possibly longer, maybe 6 weeks. Track their rankings.

What you may find out is that your pages will rank for many additional terms that before they did not.

Good advice?

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SEO rankings with URL’s

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