One of the simplest methods to improve your search engine optimization is to look at the way you name your files. Before writing this tutorial I did lot of research on file names and found that search engines like Google give too much importance to file names. You should think what are you going to put in your web page and then give a relevant file name to this page.
Just try giving any keyword in Google search engine and you will find file names highlighted with the keyword you have given. So it simply proves that your file name should have appropriate keyword.
File Naming Style:
- The filename should preferably be short and descriptive. It's always good to use same keywords in file name as well as in page title.
- Don't use file names like service.htm or job.htm. But use actual service name in your file name like computer-repairing.htm
- Don't use more than 3-4 words in file name and separate them with hyphens rather than underscores. Try to use 2 keywords if possible.
File Name Example:
Here are some file names which should be preferred from SEO as well as from user point of view.
slazenger-brand-balls.html wimbledon-brand-balls.html wilson-brand-balls.html
Notice that keywords are separated by hyphens rather than underscores. Google sees file names as follows:
seo-relevant-filename as seo relevant filename(good)
But Google sees
seo_relevant_filename as seorelevantfilename (not good)
File Extension:
It should be noticed that .html, .htm and .php and any other extension do NOTHING for your visitors, and they are simply a means of offloading some of the work of configuring your webserver properly onto your visitors. In effect you are asking your site vistors to tell your webserver HOW to produce the page, not which one?
Many Web masters think that its a good idea to use filename without using extension. It may help you but not a whole lot.
URL Sub-Directory Name:
From Search Engine Optimization point of view URL sub-directory name hardly matters. You try giving any keyword in any search and you will not find any sub-directory name matching with your keywords. But from user point of view you should keep very much abbreviated sub-directory name.
Guru Mantra:
Finally, I will suggest to keep the following points in mind before naming your files:
- Use web page file name short, simple, descriptive and relevant to page content.
- Try to use maximum 3-4 keywords in your file name and these keywords should be appeared in your web page title as well.
- Separate all keyword with hyphen rather than with underscore.
- Keep your sub directories name as shorter as possible.
- Keep the file size fewer than 101K though because Google chops almost everything above that.
