If the URL is properly structured and keyword rich, do words in a web address (URL) serve as the anchor text to pass your desired anchor text to your pages?

Let’s take a look at two examples:

  • http://www.dogs.com/puppy-food/ for the phrase “puppy food”
  • http://www.puppy-food.com/ for the phrase “puppy food”

The answer is:  Yes, there is a benefit.  The domain has the largest impact on it.

So, puppy-food.com is your best bet optimizing for “puppy food”. Now if you’re looking to expand the site a lot and are willing to take a hit for that specific term, http://dogs.com/puppy-food/purina.html would still give you a nice little bump for puppy food (and purina) but not as much as exact matching the domain.

Another example… Suppose you’re trying to rank for “purina puppy food” - what is the difference between:

  • dogs.com/purina-puppy-food
  • dogs.com/purina/puppy-food
  • dogs.com/purina-puppy/food
  • dogs.com/articles/purina-puppy-food
  • etc…. you get the idea

Answer: You’re not going to see too much difference between those. An exact match is always good though, so I’d probably go with something involving purina-puppy-food

If you are looking for more information on this topic, please read: “Should you have your keyword in the domain name?“  It will probably have what you are looking for!