It has always been a good idea to have your top keyword phrase within your url. Google will even rank your site above other well established sites if your url contains the search phrase. For example. go to Google.com and search with the following phrase:
‘poway real estate search’
#1 ranked webpage:
www.powayrealestatesearch.com/
www.homesalessandiego.com/north-county-inland/poway/
realestate.yahoo.com/California/Poway
www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Poway_CA
www.trulia.com/CA/Poway/
www.homes.com
www.roost.com/real-estate/CA/Poway/
www.loopnet.com/California/Poway-Commercial-Real-Estate/
No big deal you might think. But if we do a little research you may be surprised what we find. The #2 and lower ranked sites are the top ranking Real Estate websites with PageRank as high as PR8! These webpages are highly optimized to say the least.
Now let’s take a look at the top ranked website:
www.powayrealestatesearch.com
* PageRank 0
* Inbound links 0
* Domain less than 2 years old
* Absolutely No On Page Optimization For Query
* Alexa: no data
* Google cache: did not match any documents
* WayBack Machine: No mention
The secret to this website getting top position ahead of these other well established websites is the fact that the search phrase is within the the url or domain name of the website.
That’s all fine and dandy, but one keyword phrase is not enough! Our example website is limited by the structure of the domain name and can only rank well for this one keyword phrase.
FYI, search engines treat a ‘space’, a ‘period’, a ‘underscore’ and ‘no space’ all the same. For example, the following phrases are all considered identical in the eyes of a search engine;
powayrealestatesearch
poway-real-estate-search
poway.real.estate.search
poway real estate search
poway.real-estate-search
So how can we use this to get top ranking for more than one keyword phrase? By using subdomains, that’s how.
You would think the webmasters of these top real estate websites would have noticed this! The key to getting # 1 position is to have the url contain the search query or keyword phrase letter for letter.
So lets see what we could do if our domain name was;
‘real-estate-search.com’
Opps! That name is taken. In fact, real-estate-search.net, real-estate-search.biz, real-estate-search.info… and on and so on.
So what can we do now? How about;
http://real-estate-search-blog.com/
If we have the domain name real-estate-search-blog.com as our main domain, then we can create the subdomain;
‘poway.real-estate-search-blog.com
and target the same keyword phrase used in our example. But not only that, we can also create other subdomains and target these other keyword phrases as well….
Del Mar Real Estate Search
San Diego Real Estate Search
La Jolla Estate Search
By using these subdomains…
http://del-mar.Real-Estate-search-blog.com/
http://san-diego-Real-Estate-search-blog.com/
http://la-jolla.Real-Estate-search-blog.com/
So with careful planning and the right domain name, it is possiable to optimize our website for more than one keyword phrase using URL optimization. In fact, look at what we can target:
Anaheim real estate
Antioch real estate
Apple Valley real estate
Bakersfield real estate
Chula Vista real estate
Corona real estate
El Cajon real estate
Elk Grove real estate
Escondido real estate
Fontana real estate
Fresno real estate
Hayward real estate
Hemet real estate
Hesperia real estate
Huntington Beach real estate
Indio real estate
Irvine real estate
Lake Elsinore real estate
Lancaster real estate
Long Beach real estate
Los Angeles real estate
Modesto real estate
Moreno Valley real estate
Murrieta real estate
Oakland real estate
Oceanside real estate
Ontario real estate
Oxnard real estate
Palm Springs real estate
Palmdale real estate
Perris real estate
Rancho Cucamonga real estate
Riverside real estate
Roseville real estate
Sacramento real estate
Salinas real estate
San Bernardino real estate
San Diego real estate
San Francisco real estate
San Jose real estate
Santa Ana real estate
Santa Clarita real estate
Santa Rosa real estate
Stockton real estate
Temecula real estate
Tracy real estate
Vallejo real estate
Victorville real estate
Visalia real estate
Whittier real estate
Alabama real estate
Alaska real estate
Arizona real estate
Arkansas real estate
California real estate
Colorado real estate
Connecticut real estate
Delaware real estate
District Of Columbia real estate
Florida real estate
Georgia real estate
Hawaii real estate
Idaho real estate
Illinois real estate
Indiana real estate
Iowa real estate
Kansas real estate
Kentucky real estate
Louisiana real estate
Maine real estate
Maryland real estate
Massachusetts real estate
Michigan real estate
Minnesota real estate
Mississippi real estate
Missouri real estate
Montana real estate
Nebraska real estate
Nevada real estate
New Hampshire real estate
New Jersey real estate
New Mexico real estate
New York real estate
North Carolina real estate
North Dakota real estate
Ohio real estate
Oklahoma real estate
Oregon real estate
Pennsylvania real estate
Rhode Island real estate
South Carolina real estate
South Dakota real estate
Tennessee real estate
Texas real estate
Utah real estate
Vermont real estate
Virginia real estate
Washington real estate
West Virginia real estate
Wisconsin real estate
Wyoming real estate
These phrases came from one of the websites our example beat in the search engines. So don’t think targeting a list of keyword phrases like this is going too far.
Robert McCulloch is a Open Source application integration specialist. Custom WordPress/SEO solutions. Web 2.0 and Social Marketing… http://designweaver.info
