We have introduced an important new feature and now we are pleased to announce that now it is possible to have greater control of your website URLs in your recruitment site at QuickontheNet.com.
The URL Filename feature will allow you to create a URL on the back of your own domain name and if used correctly, it is believed these URLs can be beneficial for SEO (search engine optimisation) and attracting more visitor traffic, if you use search keywords in your website URLs.
URL Filenames should not be considered in isolation as part of your SEO plans (because they are not the only issue to consider), but they are considered to be one of the most important issues in SEO planning.
In the past, a page URL on your website might have looked something like this:
www.mydomainname.com/index.htm?sid=92739&pid=1008428
Now, with this new URL Filename feature, a page URL on your website could look something like this:
www.mydomainname.com/recruitment-agency-london.cfm
Technical Issues to Consider
- Each URL Filename must use a-z letters and/or 0-9 numbers, with hyphens and no letter spaces.
- You cannot use special characters, such as £, $, %, &, @, and so on.
- Each URL Filename must be unique. It’s logical, but you cannot have 2 different web pages with the same URL.
- Separate each word in your URL with a hyphen. You can also use an underscore, but we understand hyphens are better for SEO.
- Each URL Filename will have .cfm automatically added onto the end.
Understanding the SEO Opportunity
- If you consider a web page could have many words (potentially hundreds of words), but the URL for that same page only contains a few words (keywords), then it makes sense that the keywords in the URL can have an impact on SEO ranking for that web page.
- The rationale is you are communicating that the 3-5 words in this URL are the most important keywords on this web page.
SEO Issues to Consider in each URL Filename
We provide helpful tips on how to create URLs for the benefit of SEO, to get the best search engine ranking for your recruitment job site:
- In summary, keep each URL Filename short, simple, descriptive and relevant to page content.
- Use a short keyword phrase which summarises and describes the page. For example, if a web page is about medical recruitment in Manchester, then you could have a URL something like this:
www.mydomainname.com/medical-jobs-in-manchester.cfm
- We recommend you keep your URL Filenames quite short, only using a few keywords.
- Use between 20-50 characters (80 maximum) including hyphens.
- To put it another way, use up to 10 words maximum, but we believe around 3-5 words are best.
- In respect of URLs, please use hyphens where you would normally use a letter space.
- We believe it is best not to duplicate and repeat any keyword more than once in each URL Filename.
- You do not have to use perfectly formed sentences.
- Each URL Filename and each Meta Title can contain the same or similar/related keywords.
Keep URLs Short
- Short URLs are easy to use over the phone.
- Short meaningful URLs can look more attractive when used in an email message.
- Your URLs can appear in green text on the Google search results. If your URLs are too long, the end of the URLs will be chopped off and they will not be visible on the Google search results.
What Happens to the Original URLs?
- They will still work.
- When Google and the other search engines crawl and index your website, they will look for updates, including new and removed URLs.
- Your website will normally be re-indexed for updates by Google and the other search engines every month or so.
- In other words, every month or so Google will check your website for new updates on your website (including URL filenames), and then the changes will be reflected on the search engine results.
What Happens if I Rename URLs?
- You can change and rename the URLs anytime, however we recommend you only rename the URLs at the beginning, during the initial setup and creation of URLs.
- If a new-style URL is listed on Google, it is best to avoid renaming it. You can rename it, but then it can take a few months for the change to be propagated across the search engines.
- In summary, add a new-style URL and then avoid changing it.
Gallery Items and Job Sites
- We recommend you do not delete gallery items.
- If a job (a gallery item) is no longer available (no longer needed) and you wish to remove it from your website, then we recommend you simply make that job ‘offline’. In other words, make that gallery item offline.
- If you take this approach, you have the option of making an offline item live again, whereas a deleted item is permanently removed.
A Note of Caution
- As with most aspects of SEO, it is best not to over-do the SEO treatment of your website URLs.
- In particular, Google tends not to like it if you are trying to gain an unfair advantage on the search engines.
- Therefore it is best you keep your URLs meaningful and relevant to the page content.
- If you believe the Google search engine performance for a web page has worsened and not improved as a result of using a URL Filename, then that indicates that particular page has been penalised and pushed back by the Google algorithm, possibly because Google believes the URL itself is “keyword stuffed”, meaning it is overloaded with keywords and trying to gain an unfair advantage, or perhaps the words in the URL do not reflect the page contents.
How do I use this New Feature?
- If you wish to use this feature, you will already find the ‘URL Filenames’ field close to the bottom of each page and each gallery item.
- You can try it right now using our free trial.
- Simply add the URLs which you feel will add value to your website and help your users.
- And that’s it!
- Google and the other search engines will normally catch up with the URL changes within 1 or 2 months (sometimes within a few days or weeks).
- If you do not wish to use this new feature, then everything will continue as normal, and no action is required.
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