Hyperlink URL

Keywords within the URL itself (the name of the page) are given extra relevancy by some search engines. Therefore, it pays to name your pages after your important keyword phrase.

Example:

<A HREF="my-url-keyword-here.htm">My Link Text Here</A> <BR>

Important Tips:

• Consider separating keywords in page names by dashes or underscores. Some optimization experts believe that in the event that an engine chooses to parse the words of a URL into separate keywords, they would look for dashes as separators. However, most engines are not likely to expend the extra CPU power to parse the words. Instead, they are more likely to check for the presence of the keyword in the URL. Therefore, the Page Critic currently only checks for the presence of a keyword in the URL but does not attempt to count "words" in a URL.
  
  
• Mailto tags are also considered to be hyperlinks by Page Critic. Therefore, Page Critic will count keywords in your mailto tags toward your total frequency. Do not be overly concerned whether keywords in your mailto tags inflate your frequency beyond the Page Critic recommendations. An engine is unlikely to penalize you for spamming by having too many keywords in the URL or mailto areas.
  
  
• Consider separating keywords in your domain name with hyphens, in case an engine parses the domain name into separate words. In this scenario, the hyphens may offer a slight advantage. However, including or excluding hyphens will not have a major affect on your ranking and should not override your personal marketing preferences.
  
  Remember: separating keywords in a domain name (or page name) with hyphens is only one area that may have a slight affect on your relevancy and ranking. It's only one small piece of the search engine optimization "pie." There are many more important pieces, such as link popularity, link reputation, keywords in your title tag, keywords in link text, and so forth.
  
  
• If your keyword frequency for the URL is higher than the average top ranking page, do not worry about being penalized for spamming. In many cases, it is unavoidable to have a high keyword frequency in the URL area, due to the natural structure of your Web site and how you've named your Web pages.
  
  
• When creating an optimized page, always use one or more hyperlinks to another page(s) found on your site that includes more details about the keyword topic. Build the other page's link reputation by using the page's important keyword phrase in the link text describing the page.
  
  
• Avoid numbering your pages as index1.html, index2.html, etc. This can "red flag" you to the search engines or your competitors, and it implies you are making lots of copies of your home page even if the content of each page is entirely different. It's better to name the pages based on the keyword phrase, such as "blue-widgets.html." If you're creating engine-specific pages, you can also add a couple of letters to remind yourself which engine you're targeting. However, to keep a low profile, it's best to avoid obvious naming systems like "blue-widgets_av.html" for AltaVista. Consider creating your own naming system that does not scream "I created this page to rank at the top for your engine." If others created pages ending in "av" that were filled with spam, AltaVista might decide to simply ban or reduce in rank all pages ending in "av."
  
  
• The visible text portion of a link (link text) should always include your keywords, when possible.
  
  
• When creating highly targeted informational pages designed to rank well, create the page using the same page design as the rest of your site. Or, if your site's design is somewhat detrimental to top search engine rankings, such as the use of Flash or frames, create your informational pages using a very simple Web page design. Use a graphic or two from your site on your informational pages so that the pages will have a similar look and feel as the rest of your site. Gold's Page Generator is an excellent tool for creating very simple Web pages designed to rank well.
  
  When creating informational pages targeting specific keywords, ask yourself these questions:
  
  1. Is the page of value to your visitors?
  2. Is the page of value to the search engines?
  
  If the answer is yes to both questions, you've accomplished your goal of providing useful and valuable content on a new, highly targeted informational page on your site.
  
  Remember to link to your informational pages from at least one other page on your site so that the search engines can find those links and spider the new pages. Also, be sure to include links to important areas of your site on each of your informational pages. In other words, links on informational pages should be two-way links, going to and from your informational pages to and from the rest of your site.
  
  
• Don't take an existing page and swap out keywords, to where you'll have duplicate pages with only the keywords swapped out. Remember to ask yourself whether the pages are of value to your users and the search engines. Duplicate pages aren't of value to either.
  
  
• There's certainly nothing wrong with creating new pages to add value to your Web site for both your users and the search engines. However, always remember to adhere to the search engines' guidelines, and do not spam!