What is an SEO-Friendly URL structure?

First of all, let me start by saying that it is always better to call in an SEO manager early in the development stage, so that there is no need to make sometimes hard-to-implement tweaks afterwards.

Some content management systems bake poor URL structures right into their websites. Lax rules can be a culprit, for example, not encoding spaces or special characters.

From an SEO point of view, a site’s URL structure should be:

Straightforward: URLs with duplicate content should have canonical URLs specified for them; there should be no confusing redirects on the site, etc.

Meaningful: URL names should have keywords in them, not gibbering numbers and punctuation marks.

With emphasis on the right URLs: SEO-wise, not all URLs on a site are of equal importance as a rule. Some even should be concealed from the search engines. At the same time, it is important to check that the pages that ought to be accessible to the search engines are actually open for crawling and indexing.

So, here is what one can do to achieve an SEO-friendly site URL structure:

1- Consolidate your www and the non-www domain versions

As a rule, there are two major versions of your domain indexed in the search engines, the www and the non-www version of it. These can be consolidated in more than one way, but I’d mention the most widely accepted practice.

Canonical issues, parameters that do not change page content, loose adherence to coding standards, or any number of reasons will create duplicate content.

Options for dealing with duplicate content include:

• Reconfigure the content management platform to generate one consistent URL for each page of content.
• 301 redirect duplicate URLs to the correct version.
• Add canonical tags to webpages that direct search engines to group duplicate content and combine their ranking signals.
• Configure URL parameters in webmaster tools and direct search engines to ignore any parameters that cause duplicate content (Configuration >> Settings >> Preferred Domain).

2- Avoid dynamic and relative URLs

Depending on your content management system, the URLs it generates may be “pretty” like this one:

www.example.com/topic-name

or “ugly” like this one:

www.example.com/?p=578544

As I said earlier, search engines have no problem with either variant, but for certain reasons it’s better to use static (prettier) URLs rather than dynamic (uglier) ones. Thing is, static URLs contain your keywords and are more user-friendly, since one can figure out what the page is about just by looking at the static URL’s name.

Besides, Google recommends using hyphens (-) instead of underscores (_) in URL names, since a phrase in which the words are connected using underscores is treated by Google as one single word, e.g. one_single_word is onesingleword to Google.

And, to check what other elements of your page should have the same keywords as your URLs.

Besides, some web devs make use of relative URLs. The problem with relative URLs is that they are dependent on the context in which they occur. Once the context changes, the URL may not work. SEO-wise, it is better to use absolute URLs instead of relative ones, since the former are what search engines prefer.

Now, sometimes different parameters can be added to the URL for analytics tracking or other reasons (such as sid, utm, etc.) To make sure that these parameters don’t make the number of URLs with duplicate content grow over the top, you can do either of the following:

• Ask Google to disregard certain URL parameters in Google Webmaster Tools in Configuration > URL Parameters.
• See if your content management system allows you to solidify URLs with additional parameters with their shorter counterparts.

3- Avoid Mixed Case

URLs, in general, are 'case-sensitive' (with the exception of machine names). Mixed case URLs can be a source of duplicate content. These are not the same URLs,

• http://example.com/Welcome-Page
• http://example.com/welcome-page

The easiest way to deal with mixed case URLs is to have your website automatically rewrite all URLs to lower case. With this one change, you never have to worry if the search engines are dealing with it automatically or not.

Another great reason to rewrite all URLs to lower case is it will simplify any case sensitive SEO and analytics reports. That alone is pure gold.

4- Create an XML Sitemap

An XML Sitemap is not to be confused with the HTML sitemap. The former is for the search engines, while the latter is mostly designed for human users.

What is an XML Sitemap? In plain words, it’s a list of your site’s URLs that you submit to the search engines. This serves two purposes:

1. This helps search engines find your site’s pages more easily;
2. Search engines can use the Sitemap as a reference when choosing canonical URLs on your site.

The word “canonical” simply means “preferred” in this case. Picking a preferred (canonical) URL becomes necessary when search engines see duplicate pages on your site.

So, as they don’t want any duplicates in the search results, search engines use a special algorithm to identify duplicate pages and pick just one URL to represent the group in the search results. Other webpages just get filtered out.

Now, back to sitemaps … One of the criteria search engines may use to pick a canonical URL for the group of webpages is whether this URL is mentioned in the website’s Sitemap.

So, what webpages should be included into your sitemap, all of your site’s pages or not? In fact, for SEO-reasons, it’s recommended to include only the webpages you’d like to show up in search.

4. Close off irrelevant pages with robots.txt

There may be pages on your site that should be concealed from the search engines. These could be your “Terms and conditions” page, pages with sensitive information, etc. It’s better not to let these get indexed, since they usually don’t contain your target keywords and only dilute the semantic whole of your site.

The robotx.txt file contains instructions for the search engines as to what pages of your site should be ignored during the crawl. Such pages get a noindex attribute and do not show up in the search results.

Sometimes, however, unsavvy webmasters use noindex on the pages it should not be used. Hence, whenever you start doing SEO for a site, it is important to make sure that no pages that should be ranking in search have the noindex attribute.

Conclusion: Having SEO-friendly URL structure on a site means having the URL structure that helps the site rank higher in the search results. While, from the point of view of web development, a particular site’s architecture may seem crystal-clear and error-free, for an SEO manager this could mean missing on certain ranking opportunities.

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How to Promote a Indian Domain in USA?

Dear Friends,

One of my friend Mr. Vishesh is asked me a very interesting question, that is - "I have a Indian new domain with extension ".in" and I need to promote this in usa, can i do this?"

My answer to my friend - "YESSS!! Domain is not a problem. Make sure you post quality content in your website that's the best way to bring visitors from all over the world."

Now here I explain in details, if you are agree/disagree with me please let me know by comment box.

 
If you want to get high SERP in any country,like USA ,you can submit your site to local directories,local search engines and local classified ad sites.and jion some local forums are also helpful to improve the SERP.

e.g- You just have to make the target country like USA

Do the following steps:

1) Do local publishing with valid local information and you have to local phone number too. But if you don't have then you can contact to purchase location based phone number.

2) Do best link building and most international. Because Google  USA is globally famous but if its not USA based like other country - France or Germany then you have to publish the same location and language based articles in location based websites.

3) Do local work most of with target city and country.

Then - you can get good response.

A quick example is also here

- If you have German language website then you need to do all German language articles, website publishing, local publishing, social bookmarking etc. i.e. you need to promote this in German language too., and your site also must have German version.

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Difference Detween Bad Directory and Good Directory Submission

Directories are not all created equal. Some are good, some are bad, and some are just downright ugly. I will discuss each one here, so you can make better informed decisions when preparing for a directory submission campaign. Let me start off with the ugly and finish off with the good.



The Bad Directory:
I would say most directories fall into this category. They’re not completely bad, but have some characteristics that make them questionable or borderline. So, what constitutes a directory, bad?

• Database dumped directories. Some directory owners simply import a database of categories. This may save time, but it doesn’t solve the problem of duplicate content and it certainly doesn’t provide a unique experience for users. I would say this is a gray area because sometimes the categories might not be unique, but they may have unique listings.

• Little to no editorial discretion. If a directory is approving every paid submission, then it is pretty obvious that the main objective of the directory is to make money. While no one thinks it’s a bad idea to make money – to run a directory based on the sole purpose of making money is an unsustainable business model.

• Low or no PageRank directories. This isn’t always a bad thing because it takes time for directories to gain PR. However, if the directory is aged, but still has a low PR, it could be a sign that Google may have issues with it.

• Non-unique descriptions for listings. If the site has a bunch of copied descriptions for many of its listing, it could create duplicate content issues. This is bad SEO for not only the directory, but also all listings within it.

The Good Directory:
From my experience, I would that say only a handful of directories out there are worth submitting to. Probably like 1 or 2%. So, what makes a directory, good?

• Nice and unique design. Although a unique design doesn’t make or break a directory, it does add a unique experience for users. Plus, having a unique design tells me that the directory owner is in it for the long-run and willing to invest money into their business.

• Editorial discretion / human-edited reviews. If a directory rejects a lot of submissions, there’s a good chance that it has a pretty solid guideline for approvals. Human-edited listings allow the directory owner to maintain a level of quality for their directory. And in the end, the quality is what it’s about.

• Clear site structure and layout. A directory that is SEO-Optimized with a clear navigational structure is good for both users and search engines.

• High PageRank. New sites and subpages may take time to gain PR, so disregard if it is new. For aged directories, PageRank does mean something. It says that at least one or a few good sites are linking to it, and that Google is acknowledging it as being a page of importance.

• Other features. Is it just a directory, or is the directory providing other features like tools, resources, and blog posts? Directories that offer more features are providing greater value for their users. This is a win-win situation for all.

When it comes to web directories, you need to look a little deeper than the surface. Sometimes there is more than meets the eye. Make sure to do some research on several directories before you begin submitting.

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Effects of Recent Google Update, HummingbBird

The first thing one should know that Hummingbird is neither the replacement to earlier updates this year like Penguin 2.0, Panda, Encryption or others, nor their extension. However, all these updates are the parts of a bigger idea from Google to make its search engine more useful, sophisticated and user-friendly. This recent update has been long overdue since the last overhauling update from Google, which was Google Caffeine of 2010. Hummingbird update will help Google to know about the users intent behind the searches and therefore, it gives results for what users are trying to search rather than displaying results that match the keywords.

Now Google search will be more like a conversation between two people. It will keep track of what the user searched previously and will try to link those searches and give very specific results based on those searches. Like someone searched on a keyword Tea and then where it is grown, the search engine will link It with an earlier search of Tea and will give results accordingly. In addition, this update will also keep track of the users location and other important details.

So, in what way will this update affect SEO.

The effect of this update for those who were following Google guidelines for useful, informative and unique web content will show an increase in their website traffic. On the other hand, those who were spamming the internet with all kinds of black hat SEO techniques, banned by Google, to get higher ranking of their websites in search results will see serious actions from Google. Their websites will be penalized or may be removed under Manual Spam Action.

Concluding the discussion, the expert from the SEO Company, said as far as people follow all the guidelines from Google for publishing a unique and informative content on their websites, they need not worry about the ranking and the fate of their websites. In combination with earlier updates like Penguin 2.0, Panda, and Encryption, Hummingbird will only help to improve the strength of legitimate websites in search results.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/11/prweb11379013.htm.

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