Exact Match Domain & Title Tag / URL
-
I currently own an exact match domain for my keyword. I have it set up with multiple pages and also a blog. The home page essentially serves as a hub and contains links to all the pages and the blog.
My targeted keyword is on its own page and I made the title tag the same as my keyword. As an example the URL for my targeted post looks like this:
benefitsofrunningshoes.com/benefits-of-running-shoes
I have solid, non-spammy content and clean whitehat earned backlinks directing to that specific page.
My concern right now is that the URL looks kinda spammy. The website has been live for about a week and the home page ranks well enough but my targeted page is no where to be found. (it does show up if I manually search via search command "site:benefitsofrunningshoes.com").
I'm wondering if it is acceptable to use the exact keyword in title tag / page url if it is also in the domain as an EMD?
Should I change the title tag and leave the URL in? Or should I completely change the title tag and URL and 301 redirect to the new page? I appreciate any help!
-
Thanks Daniel - this does help clarify things!
-
Hi Kusanagi17,
If you really badly want to rank for the keyword, there's no need to create that extra page ie, /benefits-of-running-shoes. With your domain name being what it is, it's fine just to use that same keyword in the title of the home page.
With regards to why that page isn't being indexed, yes it's probably to do with Google deeming that there's no need for that page given the domain name, but also the fact that a new site's deeper pages will take time to be indexed. Given that it's a new site I wouldn't worry at all about adding a 301 redirect from the extra page to the home page.
Hope that helps!
Daniel
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
We switched the domain from www.blog.domain.com to domain.com/blog.
We switched the domain from www.blog.domain.com to domain.com/blog. This was done with the purpose of gaining backlinks to our main website as well along with to our blog. This set us very low in organic traffic and not to mention, lost the backlinks. For anything, they are being redirected to 301 code. Kindly suggest changes to bring back all the traffic.
Technical SEO | | arun.negi0 -
Google Displaying wrong URL but correct page title and description in SERPS
Hi. Our second highest performing page on Google is messed up in the SERPS. This is our login page. It always ranks high. It still does, but the URL is incorrect. Google is referencing an old redirect that was for a one off campaign from January 2014. This page has long been redirected. But now the vanity url for this page is what is displayed in Google. The link goes to our login page but once you log in it redirects you to a page saying the offer has expired instead of your account details. This is a huge issue for us. Can anyone shed some light? I'm having a rel canonical added since this page is used for a lot of vanity deeplinks.
Technical SEO | | PollyKane0 -
Keyword rich domain name and page title
Hi guys, First of all, I must say I love this community, and that SEO is great and at time fascinating :d Ok my question now is, I have this domain which is keyword rich, later I noticed Google changed my pages title into something else but similar, also added my domain name (mysite.com) in the titles. Google had taken some of his auto-title-suggestions from inside my pages, later i changed them and saw google changed the titles too accordingly, nice work google ) So I figured this tile name changing is because my domain is already keyword rich, right? so the best practice is, I create a more unique descriptive title + my domain name at the end of the title. (And for homepage, domain name .com at the beginning in the title. What do you think? Thanks for your thoughts!
Technical SEO | | mdmoz0 -
Domain Switch - With lost control of original domain.
Hey all, A client finally sold a domain name after being harassed to sell for many years, without talking to us about it first. They moved the site to a new domain, and the purchasing company took over the original domain. Then they called me, wondering why the site is no longer showing up in Google. I've done some initial research, and everything I find for advice assumes that you have control over the original domain. We don't. I'm hoping someone here has some creative advice, so we don't have to start from the beginning, and/or painfully update links we've acquired. My only thought was that the new company may be kind enough to post 301's for us if we provided them.... Any thoughts / advice / life rings will be greatly appreciated! 🙂
Technical SEO | | KBK0 -
Canonical tags pointing at old URLs that have been 301'd
I have a site which has various white label sites with the same content on each. I have canonical tags on the white label sites pointing to the main site. I have changed some URLs on the main site and 301'd the previous URL to the new ones. Is it ok to have the canonicals pointing to the old URLs that now have a 301 redirect on them.
Technical SEO | | BeattieGroup0 -
Parked & primary domains
Aloha, I am completely new at this, so please forgive me if I am not describing my question very well, or if these questions has been asked many times before! My husband and I have an LLC and a DBA which sell the same products (although with different emphasis). For the LLC and DBA we have different domains, but we would like for both domains to lead to the website. To do this I have set one domain as primary (makanagardens.com) and the other as parked (bigislandcoffeeroasters.com). My questions are these: Since both domains have the same content, could I be "demoted" by google for duplicate content? I have submitted sitemaps for both domains to google and bing. Is that alright? Does it matter which domain name we link-build upon? So far I have been link-building upon whichever domain is applicable at the time. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | makanagardens0 -
Www/nonwww .co.uk/.com
When I started SEO - I didn't really know what I was doing (still don't!) Just wondering if anyone can help me with this small problem. I now understand that I basically have 4 URLs www.ablemagazine.com (Page Authority: 38/100) www.ablemagazine.co.uk (Page Authority: 47/100) ablemagazine.com (Page Authority: 3/100) ablemagazine.co.uk (Page Authority: 51/100) What should be configuration be to ensure I'm not loosing masses amounts of linkjuice? At the moment I have ablemagazine.co.uk set as my default domain in webmaster tools. www.ablemagazine.com www.ablemagazine.co.uk and ablemagazine.com all 301 redirect here (I think)
Technical SEO | | craven220 -
Directory URL structure last / in the url
Ok, So my site's urls works like this www.site.com/widgets/ If you go to www.site.com/widgets (without the last / ) you get a 404. My site did no used to require the last / to load the page but it has over the last year and my rankings have dropped on those pages... But Yahoo and BING still indexes all my pages without the last / and it some how still loads the page if you go to it from yahoo or bing, but it looks like this in the address bar once you arrive from bing or yahoo. http://www.site.com/404.asp?404;http://site.com:80/widgets/ How do I fix this? Should'nt all the engines see those pages the same way with the last / included? What is the best structure for SEO?
Technical SEO | | DavidS-2820610