URL structure with broad search phrase but specific intent
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My question is regarding some difficult URL structure questions in an online real estate marketplace. Our problem is that our customers search behavior is very broad, but their intent very narrow. For IRL examples go to objektia (dot) se.
Example: Lease commercial space Stockholm
Is a usual search query, wherein the user searches for the **broad category **commercial space, in the geography of Stockholm. The problem is that their intent is actually much more specific, since:
Commercial space === [Office, Retail, Industrial, Storage, Properties]
I have previously asked the forum for help regarding the placement of products in our URL-hierarchy, in which I got some good answers. We chose to go the route of alternative #3, ie placing our products (real estate listings), directly beneath their respective category (neighborhoods).
https://moz.com/community/q/placement-of-products-in-url-structure-for-best-category-page-rankings
Basically we chose to have the following URL structure:
Structure: domain.se/category/subcategory/product
Example: domain.se/Stockholm/suburb-of-stockholm/specific-listing-12
Now the question is, how do we deal with the **space type **modifier in our URL structure. Nobody wants to see retail space when they are after office space, so our current search page solution (category page) is the following:
Structure: domain.se/space-type/neighborhood/sub-neighborhood
All space types: domain.se/commercial-space/neighborhood/sub-neighborhood
Specific space type: domain.se/office-space/neighborhood/sub-neighborhood
Now, the problem with our current solution in combination with our intent to move our product pages into this hierarchy, is that every product page will be (and is today) linking towards the specific type category. Our internal link network would be built around type categories that are extremely relevant from a UX standpoint, but almost worthless (surprisingly) from an organic traffic standpoint. Also, every search page (category page) for each space type would be competing for the same search broad search phrase.
The alternative is to place the type modifier at the end of the URL:
Category page type at the end: domain.se/neighborhood/sub-neighborhood/type
Listing page (product page), type at the end: domain.se/neighborhood/sub-neighborhood/street-address/type/listing-12
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I have mocked up a small URL hierarchy pic to illustrate the two above cases:
Type -> Geography
Geography -> Type
EDIT: I realized afterwards that the **Geography -> Type **illustration is incorrect in the second leftmost column. It should say domain.se/city-1/neighborhood-1/street-address-1/type-2 instead of domain.se/space-type/city-1/neighborhood/street-address-1/type-2, in the second leftmost column and second farthest down row. It should also include internal links inbetween that box and the one to the left.
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