Website architecture - levels vs filters and authority loss - Enterprise SEO
-
Hi Everyone,
I am participating in the development of a marketplace website where the main channel will be traffic via SEO. We have encountered the directories (levels) vs filters situation.
1. Does everyone still agree that if we have too many levels, authority is loss as you do down through the levels? Does everyone agree that there should be a max of 3 levels and never 4.
Example 1
www.domain.com/level1/level2/level3
vs
www.domain.com/level1
In theory, the content on "level 3" will have a lower DA than the content on "level1".
2. Does everyone agree that for enterprise SEO (huge marketplace websites) filters are a better idea than levels?
Example 2
www.domain.com/level1/level2/level3
vs
www.domain.com/filter-option1
In theory, the content on "level 3" will have a lower DA than the content on "filter-option1".
Thanks so much in advance
-
Hi Ryan,
Thank you for your advise. The marketplace is going to be a big site so I think we will go with using both filters (mostly for product segmentation) and folders for blog pages, contact pages and so forth. Thanks again.
-
Hi Andy and Everett,
Thanks for getting back to me. Your "Follow the winner" advise I think is spot on and from what I see "winners" are using filters more than folders for products. The site I am working on is going to be a big Marketplace (more than 450.00 products) and so I think I will go with the filters approach mostly. We will be adding region as a filter. I will use folders for blogs, contact pages, and so forth.
Thanks again..the site should be live in about a year so.!
-
Folders tend to be useful for large structural sections of a site, especially when addressing issues that may arise within a given area, i.e. using folders for blog, forum, FAQ, etc., due to how each one may be running different software and need different analysis with Analytics.
Once those different sections are identified, using filters within those sections is fine, and often a default naming convention for a given software solution. Ultimately SEO is a consideration in URL structure, but not the only one you're going to make. As Andy says above, it's largely dependent on the needs of the site. Plus, getting page-level engagement and sharing will outweigh the URL structure benefits. Cheers!
-
Hi Carla,
As a website gets larger, it makes sense to have a tiered structure rather than place everything one 'click' from the root. Yes, PA will diminish as you get deeper into a site, but a carefully planned internal linking plan will put paid to that - as will building links to internal pages.
As for filters vs levels, it depends hugely on the site, niche, users and what other competitors are also doing ('follow the winners' type of thing), as well as what makes the most sense for the site structure. There is no definitive answer to this one.
As for a 4th level, if a common sense structure calls for a 4th level, then don't try and bypass it and ruin usability for the sake of one less click. I have worked with many sites that have more than 4 tiers and never encountered an issue.
I hope this helps?
-Andy
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is a One Page Website template bad for SEO?
I have a website of a freelancer who is using a One Page template which includes the following section About Him Portfolio Resume I also got 5 sperate pages which are related to the keywords he wants to rank for. Will this be sufficient or should I suggest him to go for a separate website template?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | iamgaurav12900 -
SSL for SEO?
To obtain an SEO benefit from an SSL is there any particular type or brand which is recommended or has a track history? It seems you can pay anything between $20 and $???? (For that matter whatever you want to pay!). Any experience gratefully accepted! Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoman100 -
Seo site architecture - how deep?
Hello Moz community! We are building out a site for a web hosting/web design company. I am wondering if we should just have home/categories/pages or if we should have home/categories/sub-categories/pages. I am am not sure if by adding the additional level we can create a bunch of mini-hubs within the categories. For example: Home/Web hosting/Business Web Hosting/Small Business Web Hosting I don't know if these mini-hubs within the category are a good idea or if I should keep it as flat as possible? Any thoughts on this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | YouAndWhatArmy0 -
4 websites with same content?
I have 4 websites (1 Main, 3 duplicate) with same content. Now I want to change the content for duplicate websites and main website will remain the same content. Is there any problem with my thinking?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | marknorman0 -
Would it be better to Start Over vs doing a Website Migration?
Hey guys /gals I have a question please. I have a computer repair business that does extremely well in search and is on the front page of google for anything computer repair related. However, I am currently re-branding my company and have completely redesigned every aspect of the UI and the SEO Site structure as well as the fact that I have completely written vastly different content and different title tag lines and meta descriptions for each page. So basically when doing a migration we know that we want to keep our content, titles, headlines and meta descriptions the same as to not lose our page rank. Seeing that I have completely went against the grain in all directions on a much needed company re-branding and everything is completely different from the old site is it even worthwhile 301 redirecting my old urls to the new ones that would (best) correspond with the new? In the plainest English, would I do better at Ranking the New Website QUICKER without doing 301 redirects from the OLD to the NEW? In an EXTREME instance like what I have done, would the Domain Migration IMPEDED me ranking the new site seeing how nothing is the same? I have build a Rock solid SILO Site Architecture on the New site which is WordPress using the Thesis Framework and the old domain is built on JOOMLA 1.5 Thank fellas Marshall
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MarshallThompson0 -
Ajax website and SEO
Hi all, A client of mine has a website similar to Pintrest. All in Ajax/. So imagine an ajax-grid based animal lover site called domain.com. The domain has three different Categories Cats, Dogs, Mice. When you click on a category, the site doesn't handle the URL and doesn't change the domain So instead of the domain going from domain.com to domain.com/cats, it uses the Ajax script and just shows all the cat pins. and when you click on each pin/post it opens a page such as domain.com/Pin/123/PostTitle It doesn't reference the category. However a page domain.com/cats does exist and you can go there directly. Is this an SEO issue for not grouping all pins under a category? How does Google handle Ajax these days, it use to be real bad but if Pintrest is going so well i'm assuming times have changed? Any other things to be wary of for a grid based/ajax site? I am happy to pay for an hour or two for a more in depth audit/tips if you can feed back on the above. Fairly urgent. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Profero1 -
Does a page on a site with high domain authority build page authority easier? i.e. less inbound links?
Is this also why people build backlinks to their BBB profiles, Yellowpages Profiles, etc. i.e. why do people build backlinks to other pages that link to them? Wouldn't it be more beneficial to just build that backlink directly to your target?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | adriandg0 -
What are the SEO implications of a CNAME?
(please ignore ridiculousness of hypothetical situation) Lets say Amazon had a food division which was at food.amazon.com. I partnered with Amazon's food division and now food.amazon.com will point to my website (food.com). Amazon adds a CNAME record so food.amazon.com resolves to food.com. If food.amazon.com has built up significant page rank / domain authority, will food.com be getting those benefits? Also, lets say food.amazon.com/rice has a lot of PR / authority -- will food.com benefit from the value of those internal pages?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | chadburgess0