Does the actual hyphenated url matter in google results?

Question

I have read through all the documents from Google Webmasters but was unable to figure this out.

My site has schema.org microdata elements to make it more googlebot friendly. There is an event with a name let's say MY RECENT EVENT.

The link to this is a page www.mysite.com/234

If I make the link www.mysite.com/MY-RECENT-EVENT will it make any difference?

MrWhite · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-25 14:05:39Z

4

In general, hyphenated URLs are better for seo than the id. Two main advantages -

Google Ranking - The keywords in link have some ranking factor as it tells a lot about the content inside the page. Although this factor is just 1 out of only G knows how many.
Higher CTR - I believe this is very important reason for having nice readable URLs. The keywords in the URL and other meta data is generally highlighted on search results. This may result in higher CTR from the users if your url has same/similar keywords the user is looking for.

E.g. if you are looking for some seo advice, you would have higher probability of clicking on:

http://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/84361/does-the-actual-hyphenated-url-matter-in-google-results

Vs.

http://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/84361/

MrWhite

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answered Aug 25, 2015 at 9:30

Aakash

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Hyphens have absolutely no effect on ranking or any other factor that Google uses. None whatsoever. However, the hyphen can effect user experience (UX) and can make any URL/URI easier to read. I am pro-hyphen except within domain names.
– closetnoc
Aug 25, 2015 at 15:45
1

Do you mean keywords in URL don't have any impact on the ranking? I believe, they still hold some value. Anyway, if we assume keywords in URL do impact SEO, then, hyphens can be helpful for search engines as well as they denote space between words. Very old example - experts-exchange is better than expertsexchange (can be read as expert-sex-change)
– Aakash
Sep 1, 2015 at 12:40
No... I mean terms matter and hyphens do not. Google can very effectively pick terms out of a domain name with or without help. I am not anti hyphen- but the effect is more neutral. Terms within the domain name, URL/URI do influence search, however, the effect is slighter than it once was. Still, it is an important factor even if a URL/URI match does not seem to happen, there was still some love in the process somewhere.
– closetnoc
Sep 1, 2015 at 14:37

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