Utilize Directories for Increased Hits - Moving in the Right Direction
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After setting up a top-level directory called 'bands' I was really getting somewhere. Instead of:
http://unitedbands.com/viewProfile.php?ID=345
the link was:
http://unitedbands.com/bands/345
This was a step in the right direction, but there remained room to include more search engine keywords into the link. The '345' at the end would probably imply that it was referencing an actual band's name, but it meant nothing to a search engine spider.
The next step was to make the URL include the name of the band instead of a reference ID number. I made an adjustment to the script so that the final URL looked like this:
http://unitedbands.com/bands/bandnamehere
Now most of the content of the site was arranged in a hierarchy that made sense to people and search engines. From looking at the URL or parsing the URL, a person or a search engine could tell that the site is about bands. The top-level directory 'bands' added more emphasis. Under the directory 'bands' there now existed hundreds of subdirectories that used the actual name of each band as its label.
The URL in that form was a beautiful sight. In the mind of a Web surfer using a search engine to find pages about their favorite band, a typical query would be "name of band" + "band". A search like that would see the new URL in a much more favorable light than the original. First, the word 'band' would be discovered twice within the URL. The new URL would get major points for having the word 'band' within the actual domain name and extra points for having the word 'band' as a top-level directory. Even though the user searched with the keyword 'band' as opposed to the keyword, 'bands', most search engines equate the plural and the singular. (Google will pick up a match on a directory named 'bands' or 'band' using the keyword 'band'.)
The coup d'etat is having sub-directories that are the names of the bands that are being searched. Combine this heavy-hitting URL with appropriate keywords in the page titles, meta-tag description and meta-tag keywords, and search engines sucked up this new design like a Hoover on steroids.
Next: From My Own Experience... >>
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