Since my Search Insider column "Is Your URL Hot or Not" ran this past week, traffic to my blog has spiked and I've been getting a lot of requests to review specific URL's. One of the first ones that came in was HowStuffWorks.com courtesy of Kathryn Kelly. I did a quick search for the brand name in Google and liked what I found. Leading caps in the title and description help the words stand out. Unfortunately, there's no way to control the display of the URL in natural search results so I can't penalize them for that. I know that HowStuffWorks does very well in the natural search space due to its site architecture so these guys definitely recognize the power of the URL.
One question that's come up in the comments on this blog is why I'm against including the www. Many folks aren't aware that it's possible to redirect people straight to the domain whether they type the dubs or not. It's a simple solution that any webmaster should be able to do. And, for those that need clarification, our friends at HowStuffWorks have just the article for you.
2 comments:
Can't agree with the no www thing, Aaron. If you do any kind of email marketing, and in real estate, we do alot, the link won't work in an email without the www. And if anyone uses your content on another website with your link, then it can cause problems. You need to always use either NO www, or ALWAYS www...not sometimes either way.
Now those of us who have Google webmaster accounts can set Google to not penalize by always assuming either way is the same...but the other search engines don't do that.
My advice is to always use www in every case, and then you don't have to worry about search engine problems.
Jan
Jan - thanks for your comment. In regards to email, you can just hyperlink the URL so that it clicks-thru. Same for if others embed your content. And if you permanently redirect your WWW Host to @, you'll be covered in terms of link distribution.
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