URL Best PracticesBased on Correlation Data

Rand Fishkin | SMX East NYC 2009

10,000 Queries

Google.com United States Only

Range of Head, Middle & Tail Queries

1-6 Word Queries

Excludes Queries w/ Fewer than 25 Results

Collected Oct. 1-3, 2009

Correlation Data Set

Correlation IS NOT Causation

If T = Temperate in Manhattan and I = # of ice cream

vendors out, then correlation coefficient T:I is quite

positive. Does this prove that ice cream vendors cause

it to be hot?

Are Shorter URLs Better?

As URL Length Rises, Ranking Decreases

In Close Proportion

What About

Short Domain Names?

Domain Name Length Appears to Barely

Matter for Rankings(but >11 characters may be unwise)

Are Query Parameters

Harmful?

URLs with Query Parameters are

Less Likely to Appear in Top Results

Do Keywords in the

Root Domain Name Help?

Root Domain Names that Include

Keyword Matches are Dramatically More

Likely to Appear in Top Results

Do Keywords in a Site's

Subdomain Help?

Not as much as Root Domains, but there

Appears to be Some Value

Do Keywords in the URL Path

Make for Better Rankings?

They make Dramatically Less Difference

than Root or Subdomain

Slightly More Sophisticated Data from

this Spring Suggested that KW Usage in

Path has a Somewhat Positive Correlation

Are Keywords in the

Filename Valuable?

Like Path, Not as Valuable/Correlated

How About Keywords in

Query String?

Also Not as Positively Correlated

WWW vs. Non-WWW

WWW Domains Appear More Often in

Top Results

Is HTTP Better Than HTTPs?

HTTP Appears Much More Frequently

in Top Results, But Doesn't Seem to have

much Correlation with Ranking

Are Fewer Folders Better?

Fewer Folders in URLs have High

Correlation with Better Ranking

Ranking URL Structures

Based on Correlation Data

Better

Worse

http://www.domain.com/keyword

https://domain.com/keyword

http://www.domain.com/a/123/keyword

http://www.domain.com/a

http://www.domain.com/a?id=keyword

http://www.domain.com/a/1?id=xy&pl=keyword

https://domain.com/a/b/c/d?id=xy&pl=2&tv=7

Shameless Plug:www.seomoz.org/labs has awesome stuff

Rand Online:Twitter: @randfish

Email: rand@seomoz.org

Blog: www.seomoz.org/blog