At US SEO SEM, we know that proper SEO site structure and SEO URLs can give your website the search engine optimization bump it needs. In fact, SEO URLs can make a significant difference and become a driving factor in your websites SEO strategy.
When we first approach the SEO URL, it is important to understand how optimization plays into web site structure. SEO URLs can be set up in several different ways, and each has its benefits.
SEO URLs are set up in 'directories' much folders on your computer's desktop. The files that a browser displays are located in directories which can in tern be in other directories, and so on until you reach the root folder, which would be the equivalent of the computer's desktop.
It is how these directories appear within your SEO URL that changes it's search engine optimization value. We build optimized websites with sub-directories (http://www.website.com/sub-directory) or sub-domains (http://sub-domain.website.com/), and each serves a unique SEO purpose.
While both techniques are beneficial, sub-directories are the standard format for proper SEO URLs. We build sites using sub-directories to logically organize the website and to increase its authority in totality. The more pages that fall within a certain directory, the more search engine optimization value the original page has.
For example, our site has a page about Link Building Techniques located on our servers at http://www.usseosem.com/seo-strategy/link-building-techniques.php. This page is located in the file "link-building-techniques.php" which sits in the directory "seo-strategy." Because there are many files within the sub-directory "seo-strategy," the page located at http://www.usseosem.com/seo-strategy/ has a higher likelihood of getting to the top of search engines for the targeted keywords, such as "SEO Strategy."
While sub-directories can greatly improve a website's onsite SEO URL, sub-domains actually function more similarly to inbound SEO & link building techniques.
Search engines consider sub-domains to be independent of the overall website in terms of SEO URLs. Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others likely attribute some of the search engine optimization value of the http://www.website.com/ site to the sub-domain SEO site structure http://SUB-DOMAIN.website.com/, but it is essentially considered its own website.
We use sub-domain pages to generate keyword targeted linkbacks to the original website. If a site has a lot of content regarding the exact topic our site is about, and many links appear directing traffic to our site, it logically follows that our site should be relevent to people interested in that type of information. The SEs realize this and will rank your site better as a result.
Sub-domains allows us to create this exact environment and to control all of the variables, such as anchor text and inbound PR.
Don't let this information intimidate you, we're here to help!
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