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SEO and Keyword-Rich URLs

Allow me to introduce you to Google’s exact match domain (EMD) update from last October:
  • Search Engine Land - Deconstructing The Google EMD Update
  • SEOmoz - The Exact Match Domain Playbook: A Guide and Best Practices for EMDs
  • Search Engine Roundtable - Google EMD Update: Exact Match Domains No Longer Rank As Well
Keyword-rich URLs just ain’t what they used to be.
 

EMD backstory

Google was tired of websites ranking well because their URL had a few keywords in it, but the site itself offered no real value. This used to be a big proponent of SEO. Well, Google eventually got so sick of it they made a MASSIVE update to handle it. Suddenly sites that had “Keyword URLs” dropped if they didn’t back them up with real content.
 

Moral of the story

Google doesn’t really care too much if you have keywords in your URL. You need to make sure the content makes your point. You content will drive your traffic, create your value and make you authoritative. Nobody cares about your store’s address if all you have on the shelf is dead plants.
 

What this means to thunder::tech’s Optimization team

We need to focus on what our clients do and why people want to choose them. We need to focus on content, not keywords. We need to focus on what’s important to impart to the user, not what we can do to sneak our way to the top. You can’t sneak anymore. Keyword optimization figures and density ratings are a lost relic of a bygone age of SEO. Our focus is content strategy, value and ensuring that we can prove a real point to a user.

Since December of 2011, thunder::tech has taken a hard stance that usability and sitemaps are phase one of optimization. If we can’t direct users where they need to be once they get into the site, then we have no business attracting them through SEO. Our Optimization team and User Experience (UX) teams have grown quite close since then because of the simple fact that proper optimization requires us to think of who we want and what we want them to see.
 

What you need to do for successful SEO

Don’t focus on how many times you use a keyword. Focus on if you can actually provide something useful to the user. Your website is about you, but it’s for the user.

Go look at your website, and I mean really look at it. Ask yourself:
  • What are you doing to make things easy on the user?
  • What are you doing to help the user?
  • What value are you providing the user?
  • What are you doing to make the user say, “I’m glad I went there”?
When it comes to optimization, it’s okay to be a little lax on the keywords if you’re proving a point. Make things better for your user and always keep them at the forefront of your mind and you’ll weather most Google updates better than most.

About the author::
Joshua Mathe leads thunder::tech’s Optimization team and his infatuation with SEO and PPC began six years ago. He is a lifelong Clevelander with a love of all things #CLE. In the rare moments that he's not online, he’s spending time playing with his dogs, cooking, cheering for Cleveland sports and practicing kendo.

About the Author

Joshua Mathe leads thunder::tech’s Optimization team and his infatuation with SEO and PPC began six years ago. He is a lifelong Clevelander with a love of all things #CLE. In the rare moments that he's not online, he’s spending time playing with his dogs, cooking, cheering for Cleveland sports and practicing kendo.

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