Google: Keywords In URLs Are An Overrated SEO Factor

Mar 9, 2017 - 7:36 am 13 by

Google Wood Wall

Almost a year ago today, Google's John Mueller told SEOs again that keywords in the URL is a small ranking factor in Google's search ranking algorithm. This is not new, we had confirmation of this back in 2006 from Matt Cutts. But we were also told it wasn't worth changing URLs for SEO purposes.

Today, Google's John Mueller said that keywords in URLs are overrated. He said this on Twitter, "keywords in URLs are overrated for Google SEO."

So don't go ahead and change all the URLs on your site for Google. Changing URLs can hurt if done wrong so don't do it for that reason. I personally even left my legacy URLs on this site the way it was, with just numbers in them and new URLs for new content had keywords in them. I did not rewrite the old URLs on this site.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: April 1, 2025

Apr 1, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Ranking Reddit AI Translated Pages Too Well

Apr 1, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google

Google AI Overviews Tests Check Important Info Disclaimer

Apr 1, 2025 - 7:41 am
Bing Search

Bing Tests New Sitelinks Hover Shadow & Related Search Designs

Apr 1, 2025 - 7:31 am
Bing Search

Bing Copilot Answer Buttons To Image & Video Search

Apr 1, 2025 - 7:21 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

April 2025 Google Webmaster Report

Apr 1, 2025 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: Google Cloud Balloons