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Is it possible to index a page for a phrase that is solely in a URL?

The page comes up for a phrase that does not even occur on the page. The only spot "keyword phrase example" occurs is in the universal drop down menu, linking to the correct page: website.com/keyword-phrase-example.com

Keep in mind this is a search that was done in "quotes"

Google says: When you put a word or phrase in quotes, the results will only include pages with the same words in the same order as the ones inside the quotes. Only use this if you're looking for an exact word or phrase, otherwise you'll exclude many helpful results by mistake. Example: "imagine all the people"

Other factors:

2 of the 3 words are used on the page (keyword, example), but not all 3.

The website was migrated from a website that had the 3rd word (phrase) in the domain name.

Only when you do a quoted verbatim search, does it yield the correct page.

Closing statement:

The page that comes up is very powerful, and Google sees it as similar to my desired page. Therefore it's choosing one over the other. I think that if the wrong page is not eligible to come up, that's the solution. I just wonder if it's eligible solely because of the phrase being in the dropdown menu URL.

-Thanks

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  • I've done an experiment with "quotes search" The phrase does not need to be on the page, as long as one of the words is in the primary domain's URL. In my situation, it was the migrated websites primary URL that had the 3rd word in it. Am I on to something?
    – Michael
    Commented Jul 13, 2016 at 20:53
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    Is it possible to index a page for a phrase that is solely in a URL? Yes. Unfortunately, Google over optimizes based upon different theories they may have from time to time and royally foo'bar search. One big example is exact term domain names. What a mess that was! The URL/URI [domain name - path/file name] is a major search factor for google. And it should be. However, I have seen search hits on only the URI recently which does not make sense. The URL/URI should be a major factor only when the content supports it. Cheers!!
    – closetnoc
    Commented Jul 13, 2016 at 22:16

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The best results I have for search results in which I continue to use is as follows.

Have the URL, Page Title, H1, Description and Meta data worded similar, and in a way a user would actually search with those terms. It creates a high relevancy.

One thing I also do is try to never use many filler words. I have a saying, write for the search bots but make it readable for the visitor.

Is it possible to index a page for a phrase that is solely in a URL?

It does definitely play a role. If you notice when performing a search, bold words are triggered from your search term.

It is clear that the Title, URL, Description are all being triggered by the search term.

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