It doesn’t seem that long ago that SEOs preached the benefit of including keywords you want to rank for in your URL. It’s not surprising that when people rush to do this, Google switches gears.  It’s not a malicious gear-switch; it’s simply a playground for spammers & domain squatters.

Google recently dropped information that tells us that keywords in the top level domain have essentially “had the knobs turned down” on their role in the algorithm.  This doesn’t include Yahoo/Bing, but honestly, who does?

So what does this mean for Keyword-Rich-URL.com?  Well, probably not much.  It’s doubtful you will drop because of your URL choice.  However, it is likely that some sites you previously outranked will start to rise to the top pushing you down.

So watch your rankings.  If you see a slip without any change on your part, there’s work to be done.  Start building links, updating old copy & creating content.