E Commerce Product URL SEO
-
Hi, first question here.
In response to Paddy's wonderful article and Rand's related article from 09 I've found myself asking this question.
"www.home.co.uk/product" or "www.home.co.uk/category/product"
As I'm currently reviewing the structure for so many of our e com sites the article comes at a great time.
I'm going for home/category/product so I can optimise for a category, as category based searches are quite high and competitive.
Yes some products can appear in 2 categories but I'm combating it with 301's or image based links.
What are your thoughts.
-
I would go for the nice product URL's with (sub)categories in it. That way users and search engines will understand your website better imho. You should of course think well about your website structure before you launch. If you do that well and you're quite sure you're doing the right thing you should be good.
I'm very interested in why David chose the /product system. Did that give your better results in the SERPS?
-
breadcrumbs was exactly what I was going to say
-
Thats down to a inherent limitation of our CMS, and a massive pai i the backside.
if I had a choice it would be /Category/Product. Other sites which I have worked on over the years I've always used Category/product to great effect
-
There seems to be a whole load of information floating around the web about canonical and redirects but all only give suggestions of where each can be used apposed to a definitive best practice answer.
If anyone has tested the effectiveness of each it would be great to see some examples.
-
Hanger world is currently using /home/product/product ID
As apposed to home/category/product.
-
Think usability, if Im browsing the category, /Buttons/BlueButtonsadBuckles and I get redirected to /Buckles/BlueButtonandBuckles, all of a sudden I'm not where I am and I didnt ask to be moved.
See my point?
-
Thanks for the reply.
I can see on your site your using redirects to the home/product.
It seems a great way to go, Id assume that optimising a category with 301 links to products will pass on the "juice".
The shorter url is favored by search engines anyway I suppose.
-
Thanks for the reply.
I would agree for usability the category/product options is better, but could be tackled using breadcrumbs?
Is using canonical when category produces duplicate content not just a lazy alternative to 301's?
Shouldn't 301 redirects be used when a product appears in more than one category?
Would having home/product with canonical and 301's from /category/product not be the best option?
-
Don't think SEO, think User Experience...
My personal preference is for /category/product for the simple reason that the URL looks better and a visitor can establish their position within the site just by glancing at the URL.
get round the dupe product issue by being able to specify which Category is to be the primary category for a product and then set a canonical tag to reflect this.
Info on canonicals here http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/canonicalization
Regards
Aran
-
I would stick with /product to be honest. that way in the future when you decide to move products around and combine categories etc you will not have as much work to do with 301 redirects.
I have tried both, after 12 months I decided to move to the /product system, it was a massive overhaul but it was worth the effort in the end.
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
-
How is Single Page Application (SPA) bad for SEO
Hi guys. I am quite inspired of SPA technique. It's really amazing when all your interaction with the site is going on the fly and you don't see any page reloads. I've started implementing the site with this instruction and already found nice guys to make the design. The only downside of the using SPA which I can see **is the **SEO part. That's because the URL does not really change and different pages don't have their unique URL addresses.
Web Design | | Billy_gym
Actually they have, but it looks like: yoursite.com/#/products yoursite.com/#/prices yoursite.com/#/contact So all of them goes after # and being just anchors. For Google this mean all of these pages is just yoursite.com/ My question is what is really proven method to implement the URL structure in Single Page Application, so all the pages indexed by Google correctly (sorry I don't mention the other search engines because of market share). The other question, of course, is examples. It will be great to see real life site examples, better authority sites, which use SPA technique and well indexed by search engines.1 -
URL Structure's Effect on SEO
Hello all, I have a client who currently has a very poor URL structure. As it stands, their URLs are formatted in the following manner: http://www.domain.com/category/subcategory/page In all my years of SEO, however, I have always tried to implement the following format: http://www.domain.com/category/page The web designer for this particular project has been very reluctant to change the structure for obvious reasons, but I'm convinced that by modifying the URL structure, SEO will improve. I am correct in thinking this? Likewise, if I am able to get the URL structure changed, what do I need to look out for to make sure we don't lose any traction for our keyword terms? Any and all insight/suggestions is greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!
Web Design | | maxcarnage0 -
Is having copy above the fold still beneficial for SEO
Many sites nowadays are approaching a section based approach with copy further down the page. Is it still valid to keep copy above the fold now for SEO. Will it impact on SEO if you have to scroll down the page?
Web Design | | vortexuk0 -
Can anyone help me detect some SEO improvements onpage please...
Can anyone help me detect some SEO improvements onpage please... I have shortened the website URl so its not easily found when searched via search engines.. http://goo.gl/GlfMRl Please have a look and give me some tips. Thanks
Web Design | | Nettv0 -
Question #2: All of my INTERNAL links in OSE are being indexed from http://www.e.com/default.asp, and all my EXTERNAL links are linked to http://www.e.com/ am I getting a fraction of the link juice because of that?????
Hey guys, sorry for the really long question, but it appears that I am losing between 50 and 75 % of my link juice to my internal pages. In OSE all main category links (left sidebar) are being indexed from the URL that includes default.asp, even though NONE of my external links include that: http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uncommonthread.com%2FSulky-Thread-s%2F78.htm If you check the PA for http://www.uncommonthread.com/: http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uncommonthread.com%2F You see that it is practically double the PA of http://www.uncommonthread.com/default.asp: http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uncommonthread.com%2FDefault.asp **Also, non of my internal menu links are being indexed. ** Look at the menu on this page: http://www.uncommonthread.com/Sulky-Thread-s/78.htm and then look at the OSE information here for the "invisible thread" item from the menu on the page above^^^: http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uncommonthread.com%2FSulky-monofilament-s%2F54.htm Thanks SOOO much! Pre-thumbs and thanks to anyone that can lend me a seconds worth of advice! Thanks again for your time, Tyler A.
Web Design | | TylerAbernethy0 -
Time On Site and SEO?
Does time on site impact rankings? If a person visits your site from the serps or directly visits it by typing in your name in the search field and then leaves within a minute, will that impact your serps? What is the best way to increase time on site?
Web Design | | bronxpad0 -
Flash Effect on SEO Results
I suppose this is an open-ended question, at least for now, because I'm getting differing opinions on whether Flash inhibits optimum SEO results. I don't know the answer but I've just started to do some research and it seems this would be a good discussion based on your experience. I look forward to your thoughts. Thank you.
Web Design | | karlseidel0 -
To many scripts in my homepage. This is a problem in SEO?
I adding a lot of new features to my website: JS animated, menus, google translate, alexa counter, google analytics, salesforce, and so on. My website is full of scripts and im worry about the SEO. Is that an issue?
Web Design | | Naghirniac0