Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
I want to move some pages of my website to a folder and nav menu in those pages should only show inner page links, will it hurt SEO?
-
Hi,
My website has a few SaaS products, to make my website simple i want to move my website some pages to its specific folder structure , so eg
website.com/product1/features
website.com/product1/pricing
website.com/product1/informationand same for product2 and so on,
the website.com/product1/.. menu will only show the links of product1 and only one link to homepage (possibly in footer).
Please share your opinion will it be a good idea, from UI perspective it will be simple , but i am not sure about SEO perspective, please help
thanks
-
Moving some pages of your website to a folder and modifying the navigation menu to show only inner page links can impact your website's SEO, but if done correctly, it doesn't necessarily have to hurt it.
But we don't have to think from SEO prospective only, we have to look the User experience angle too.
From a user experience point of view, moving some pages of your website to a folder and having a navigation menu that only shows inner page links can have both positive and negative impacts. Here's a breakdown of how it might affect user experience and SEO:
Positive Aspects:
-
Improved Organization: Structuring your website with folders can make it more organized and user-friendly, especially if you have a lot of content. Users can easily find what they're looking for within the folder.
-
Reduced Clutter: By only showing inner page links in the navigation menu for that specific folder, you reduce clutter and distraction for users. They are presented with relevant choices, making it easier to navigate.
-
Focused Content: This approach can help users stay focused on the content within that folder, as they won't be distracted by links to unrelated pages.
Negative Aspects:
-
Loss of Visibility: If you hide the outer pages in the navigation menu, users may have a harder time finding those pages, which could negatively impact their experience.
-
SEO Concerns: Search engines like Google may not be able to crawl and index the inner pages as effectively if they are not linked from the main navigation. This could lead to decreased visibility in search results for those inner pages.
-
User Confusion: Users may wonder why certain pages are not visible in the main navigation, and they might find it confusing or frustrating if they expect to see certain links there.
[you can Read the detail article here "How to improve user experience by moving pages to folders without harming SEO"]
Ultimately, the decision should be made with a balance in mind. Consider user experience and SEO best practices. You can organize your content in folders for better navigation while also incorporating alternative ways to guide users to important pages and ensuring that search engines can find and index your content effectively.
Warm Regards
Rahul Gupta
Suvidit Academy -
-
No, moving pages of your website to a folder and having the navigation menu show only inner page links will not necessarily hurt SEO. However, it's essential to implement proper 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new ones to ensure that search engines can still find and index your content. Additionally, make sure your new navigation structure is logical and user-friendly to provide a good experience for both visitors and search engines. (Study abroad) (2 Year Post Graduate Diploma Canada) (PMP Exam Prep) (Canada PR)
-
Moving pages of your website to a folder and adjusting the navigation menu to show only inner page links should not necessarily hurt your website's SEO if done correctly. However, it's essential to follow best practices to ensure that search engines can still crawl and index your content effectively. Here are some steps to consider:
- 301 Redirects: If you are changing the URLs of the pages, set up 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new ones. This tells search engines that the content has moved permanently and helps preserve SEO equity.
- Update Internal Links: Make sure that internal links within your website (from other pages, blog posts, etc.) are updated to point to the new URLs.
- XML Sitemap: Update your XML sitemap to include the new URLs. This helps search engines discover and index the new pages more efficiently.
- Robots.txt: Ensure that your robots.txt file does not block search engine crawlers from accessing the new folder and its contents.
- Canonical Tags: Use canonical tags if you have duplicate content issues, indicating the preferred URL for indexing.
- Submit to Search Engines: Resubmit your updated sitemap to search engines (Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, etc.) to expedite the indexing process.
- Test and Monitor: After making these changes, monitor your website's performance in search results and check for any issues using tools like Google Search Console. Address any errors or problems promptly.
By taking these steps, you can minimize the impact on SEO and ensure that search engines can still access and index your content effectively.
I focus on these main points when I want to move some pages of my website to a folder and nav menu in those pages should only show inner page links for my Site Pet Nutrition Guru.
It is also help ful when I move the blog (Can Cats Eat Mochi?).
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
-
Seeking SEO contractor
I would like to hire an SEO contractor to assist with some technical/SEO issues on our site (Schema, etc). Can anyone make a recommendation? I am looking to work with a small company. Thank you in advance for any referrals!
On-Page Optimization | | JulieALS1 -
remove from google search
Hi,
SEO Tactics | | CerenSEO
I am new here and I have no idea about SEO. I have an issue to solve.
My ex harasses me using SEO and causing defamation by crawling unwanted website. Google does not remove the website as it is public record. 1: how can I remove it? I am not even sure if he uses backlink because website link is pdf and he might do some other technics
2:Although I am sure he uses SEO, I can not prove it and nobody believes me. How can I proof it?0 -
Shopify SEO - Double Filter Pages
Hi Experts, Single filter page: /collections/dining-chairs/black
Technical SEO | | williamhuynh
-- currently, canonical the same: /collections/dining-chairs/black
-- currently, index, follow Double filter page: /collections/dining-chairs/black+fabric
-- currently, canonical the same: /collections/dining-chairs/black+fabric
-- currently, noindex, follow My question is about double filter page above:
if noindexing is the better option OR should I change the canonical to /collections/dining-chairs/black Thank you0 -
How to rank a website in different countries
I have a website which I want to rank in UK, NZ and AU and I want to keep my domain as .com in all the countries. I have specified the lang=en now what needs to be done to rank one website in 3 different English countries without changing the domain extension i.e. .com.au or .com.nz
SEO Tactics | | Ravi_Rana0 -
SERPs started showing the incorrect date next to my pages
Hi Moz friends, I've noticed since Tuesday, November 9, half of my post's meta dates have changed in regards to what appears next to the post in the search results. Although published this year, I'm getting some saying a random date in 2010! (The domain was born in 2013; which makes this even more odd). This is harming the CTR of my posts and traffic is decreasing. Some posts have gone from 200 hits a day to merely 30. As far as on our end of the website, we have not made any changes in regards to schema markup, rich snippets, etc. We have not edited any post dates. We have actually not added new content since about a week ago, and these incorrect dates have just started to appear on Tuesday. Only changes have been updating certain plugins in terms of maintenance. This is occurring on four of our websites now, so it is not just specific to one. All websites use Wordpress and Genesis theme. It looks like only half of the posts are showing weird dates we've never seen before (far off from the original published date as well as last updated date -- again, dates like 2010, 2011, and 2012 when none of our websites were even created until 2013). We cannot think of a correlation as to why certain posts are showing weird dates and others the correct. The only change we can think of that's related is back in June we changed our posts to show Last Updated date to give our readers an insight into when we changed it last (since it's evergreen content). Google started to use that date for the SERPs which was great, it actually increased traffic. I'm hoping it's a glitch and a recrawl soon may help sift it around. Anybody have experience with this? I've noticed Google fluctuates between showing our last updated date or not even showing a date at all sometimes at random. We're super confused here. Thank you in advance!
Technical SEO | | smmour2 -
Hundreds of 404 errors are showing up for pages that never existed
For our site, Google is suddenly reporting hundreds of 404 errors, but the pages they are reporting never existed. The links Google shows are clearly spam style, but the website hasn't been hacked. This happened a few weeks ago, and after a couple days they disappeared from WMT. What's the deal? Screen-Shot-2016-02-29-at-9.35.18-AM.png
Technical SEO | | MichaelGregory0 -
Google is Showing Website as "Untitled"
My freelance designer made some changes to my website and all of a sudden my homepage was showing the title I have in Dmoz. We thought maybe the NOODP tag was not correct, so we edited that a little and now the site is showing as "Untitled". The website is http://www.chemistrystore.com/. Of course he didn't save an old copy that we can revert to. That is a practice that will end. I have no idea why the title and description that we have set for the homepage is not showing in google when it previously was. Another weird thing that I noticed is that when I do ( site:chemistrystore.com ) in Google I get the https version of the site showing with the correct title and description. When I do ( site:www.chemistrystore.com ) in Google I don't have the hompage showing up from what I can tell, but there are 4,000+ pages to the site. My guess is that if it is showing up, it is showing up as "Untitled". My question is.... How can we get Google to start displaying the proper title and description again?
Technical SEO | | slangdon0 -
Deep Page Link - url no longer exists
I used Open Site Explorer and found a link to our site on http://www.business.com/guides/bedding-supplies-3639/ The link was setup to go to an important, deep page on my website, but the structure of our urls changed and the url no longer exists. The link (anchor text 'National Hospitality Supply') does direct to our homepage, www.nathosp.com. My question is, am I receiving full link juice? Or would I be better served to create a 301 redirect to the revised / new page url? In case it matters, if I had my choice I'd prefer the link to go to the intended deep page. Thanks in advance for your insight. -Josh Fulfer
Technical SEO | | mhans0