The importance of a URL

For a while lately I’ve been noticing that I’m getting search engine traffic from the phrase “backchannel adoption.”

I’ve written about the backchannel several times, I’ve even reviewed a book about it. But I’ve not mentioned backchannel adoption. So what’s up with all the searchers who are coming here looking for info who probably aren’t finding what they want?

I searched the blog myself, to find whatever I could that mentioned backchannel. Aha, I found an 18 month old Useful links post with the title “Useful Links: Backchannel, adoption rates, Scrunchup.” I’m thinking the search engines are ignoring the comma between the two keywords. That seems good to know. Then I looked at the URL:

Useful Links: Backchannel, adoption rates, Scrunchup

Well, that explains more. It also brings home the SEO importance of using permalinks that consist of words from the post title rather than a number out of a database.

Pogo stick bounce
Image Credit: woodleywonderworks

I’m sure the bounce rate for users who end up here based on that keyword search is about 100%, so it isn’t doing me any good in terms of building a following for the blog. But it’s something to think about when you are composing your post titles.

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