Choosing Effective File Names by Michigan Search Engines Services
During the process of choosing effective key phrase titles for your pages, you may discover pages that contain more than one topic and need to be divided into new pages. When creating new pages, which of course will also need effective key phrase titles, I want you to carefully choose the file name for the new page to closely correlate with the new title that you've selected for the page. For example, if I chose to name this page as Michigan-Search-Engines-Services, then the title of this page should also contains the key words or key phrase Michigan Search Engines Services as well as the content of this page.
Choosing your files names carefully can and does have a positive impact on search engine optimization techniques. The evidence is indisputable that there does appear to be a slight advantage to using your keywords or phrases as file names. This benefit seems to be most advantageous when a hyphen is used as a separator rather than an underscore. However, many search engine experts out there may not agree with me on this point. The research is quite clear. There does appear to be an advantage to using keywords in files names PROVIDED a hyphen is used to separate the words. Although you certainly don't want to create tremendously long file names, you do want to use the most powerful portion of your key phrase when choosing file names. Once again it is vital to remember that search engines will return search results in the exact order of their perceived relevancy to the search phrase requested. The more relevant your site appears to be to the search requested, the HIGHER your page will show in the results.
Changing Current File Names - Careful thought needs to be given when considering changing file names for SEO purposes. If your server allows for the simple creation of 301 permanent re-direct to the new page, it may not be a big deal to change file names. If however your skills have not yet grown to this level, it is best to consider the following guidelines:
Consider Changing Ineffective File Names If:
Do Not Consider Changing Ineffective File Names If:
The strongest benefits are received from this technique when it is used together with all of the other techniques. Used alone, you will see very little advantage in search results. When you do change page file names, consider making a 301 permanent redirect for the moved pages, or at least design a custom 404 page. This is so your visitor can still find the correct page while a new one is being indexed. Each server handles these types of files differently so you will need to contact your domain host for help. If you have a control panel with your hosting service, often it will have step by step instructions in the help files. For more information, contact Michigan Search Engines Services.
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