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Tags in Page Slug - Useful for SEO?

by Sandy Cormack
10 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I have been experimenting with sending articles to different document sharing sites.

One of the sites consistently places higher in Google searches for the give keywords. It is not the best site from a layout or functionality standpoint, though. So I am not liking that.

It doesn't have the highest pagerank, or the highest Alexa ranking either.

But it does one thing that that others don't - it places tags in the page slug. Not all of them, just a few, right after the article name, which is keyword optimized.

I don't know how it chooses which to use, but there they are.

Would Google somehow value that more than the keyword optimized title alone?

If so, I'll probably try adding some tags to other page slugs (on the sites that let me select the slugs to begin with).
#page #seo #slug #tags
  • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
    Originally Posted by Sandy Cormack View Post

    Would Google somehow value that more than the keyword optimized title alone?

    If so, I'll probably try adding some tags to other page slugs (on the sites that let me select the slugs to begin with).
    Yes indeed. Google analyzes the entire page so occurences of keywords and related word can make a huge difference. If you are only optimizing the title then you are fighting with one hand tied behind your back.
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    • Profile picture of the author Sandy Cormack
      Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

      Yes indeed. Google analyzes the entire page so occurences of keywords and related word can make a huge difference. If you are only optimizing the title then you are fighting with one hand tied behind your back.
      Some of the sites don't allow you to fiddle with the page slug at all.

      On the ones that do, I will try that and see if it makes a difference.
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      Sandy Cormack

      Creativity Training, Strategic Planning, Personal Development, Organizational Development, and Lead Guitar
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  • Profile picture of the author buster17
    yes. tags is very useful in SEO.
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    • Profile picture of the author WareTime
      Is a tag any more useful than having those same keywords in your article? If so, why?
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      • Profile picture of the author Sandy Cormack
        Originally Posted by WareTime View Post

        Is a tag any more useful than having those same keywords in your article? If so, why?
        In the context of the page slug? I don't know, but Mike believes that having the tags in the slug is important.
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        Sandy Cormack

        Creativity Training, Strategic Planning, Personal Development, Organizational Development, and Lead Guitar
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        • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
          Not particularly I was referring to content period as opposed to just the title as you stated. Now I might have got it wrong but you said it it appears right after the title right? I did an experiment with a site where just adding the keyword in a tag under the title did in fact move the site up several spots.

          I really can't tell without seeing code but yes Ive done more than one test where keyword placement plays a role.

          Curious though. Do you have your own page and are you actively ranking that as well?
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          • Profile picture of the author Sandy Cormack
            Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

            Not particularly I was referring to content period as opposed to just the title as you stated. Now I might have got it wrong but you said it it appears right after the title right?
            No, I said:

            But it does one thing that that others don't - it places tags in the page slug. Not all of them, just a few, right after the article name, which is keyword optimized.
            in other words, instead of making a permalink that looks like this:

            website-name/user-name/article-title

            it looks like this:

            website-name/user-name/article-title-tag1-tag2-tag3-etc
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            Sandy Cormack

            Creativity Training, Strategic Planning, Personal Development, Organizational Development, and Lead Guitar
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            • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
              Originally Posted by Sandy Cormack View Post

              No, I said:

              website-name/user-name/article-title-tag1-tag2-tag3-etc
              In that case then my answer would be definitely - keywords in the domain or URL are well established ways of increasing your relevance score.
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      • Profile picture of the author VaultBoss
        Originally Posted by WareTime View Post

        Is a tag any more useful than having those same keywords in your article? If so, why?
        Just as I said before to Sandy...

        Everything is important in your on-page SEO, title and url slug being some of the most critical factors for good rankings,
        BUT
        Not if they're stuffed in there alone.

        I did experiment, putting up a WP blog with default ('Hello World' dumb post and associated dumb comment) content on a new domain name I bought (KW rich, that is) and after a few month of not even touching it, I found it indexed and ranking rather well, BECAUSE of it's title and URL matching that KW... and because of weak competition for it, too...probably.

        But to get the most of your potential, you have to match the content of the page with it's title and url slug.

        So, in that spotlight... no use to put in tags/KW's that bear no relevancy to the content at hand...

        Just my 2cents.

        I would like to see Mike's takings on this too...

        Steve Lorenzo SEOVirtuoso
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  • Profile picture of the author VaultBoss
    Originally Posted by Sandy Cormack View Post

    [...]
    Would Google somehow value that more than the keyword optimized title alone?

    If so, I'll probably try adding some tags to other page slugs (on the sites that let me select the slugs to begin with).
    Sandy,

    Very interesting topic!

    I believe that in SE's 'eyes' there is no difference if you call them KW's (in your case the ones you were hunting for and tried to rank for) and tags (which in fact are the words or phrases in your content that the mentioned website encountered on other people's similar posts/articles.)

    This is very similar to the question many people ask me about how to properly setup their permalinks in WP... including category or not...

    This is debatable.
    Categories are usually those KW (more often the short length kind -> 1-2 words..) that will have high volume natural/organic traffic, but also rather higher competition. The same applies to tags. Basically they're having the same role, just different wording/naming and maybe usage accross different platforms.

    At first sight, using both category and KW rich title and matching URL slug would add value, SEO-wise... BUT
    Sometimes it just doesn't, either because the focus gets a bit dilluted, or because the slug gets too lengthy for G's (and friends) likings.

    Recently, I stopped recommending my clients to use the category in their permalinks and encouraged them to focus more on better optimization of the title url slug and targeted KW match.

    However, the method still has merits, especially when the url slug is short, so the category won't add too much length to it.

    In your case, though, the tags are added at the end of the link, so they will bear less significance than the beginning of it (where your main KW would be) but if they're very close family or even LSI worth... it would be a certain plus, hence your better rankings for those content pieces.

    On the other hand, those tags, being generated automatically in your example, may have higher search volume due to their popularity than some handcrafted ones might bear. But it's only up to you to find the proper ones.

    Steve Lorenzo SEOVirtuoso
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