Question about URLs
-
Hello!
I have a client that wants to upload an URL like this:
www.example.com/keyword/page-name.html
The main problem is that www.example.com/keyword/ doesn't exist and gives a 404 error so I'd prefer not doing that......
What do you think about this? And if the client wants to go ahead, is there any solution? A 301 to the final page would help?
Thank you in advance!
-
Yes, you are right. Thank you Ryan!
-
This is where I would suggest you take a step back and consider both sides.
From your side, you have a valid concern about the user experience. From the client's side, he wants to rank better.
Use your SEO knowledge and experience to help him understand the options. Otherwise I would ask, what is your involvement with the site? If you are the SEO then you should be making these decisions, not the client. If the client is making these suggestions then it seems likely he is not confident in your abilities or he feels he has superior knowledge on this topic. Either way is not a good foundation for a client relationship.
-
Thank you Ryan,
The main problem is that (following my example) www.example.com/keyword/ doesn't exist. They just want one keywords, as it were a category.
-
It seems the client desires to stuff keywords into their URL which is not a best practice. The recommended solution would be to naturally use the keyword in the URL. If that cannot happen, drop it.
Let's assume you are selling blenders and the product is the Goldstar 1000. Some possibilities:
If you only offer the one product, you can add the keyword to the product name. www.example.com/goldstar-1000-blender.
If you strongly desire the format /blender/goldstar-1000 then create a quality /blender page with content that is sincerely helpful to users.
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
-
Updating url name of a key page
One of my key pages has a url name that is completely non descriptive ('About') with no keywords in it that match the important content on that page. Should I create a new page with a proper url name and move the contents there (lose the authority of the current page), or create the url name only and redirect to the existing About page?
On-Page Optimization | | ppopov0 -
URL, page title, item name - which is most important for google ranking
We are a bridal store and are able to use different information in the URL, Page title and item name. In item name we give the product a name for us to identify ie. Alex Lace Dress in Black/Nude, Ivory/Nude, Red/Red In Page Title we use the suppliers name and product code as well as the item name ie. Jadore j8075 Alex Lace Dress Online Australia URL = alex-lace-dress/ Are we using the correct format ? What could we do to improve them?
On-Page Optimization | | CostumeD0 -
2 Canonical questions
QUESTION 1
On-Page Optimization | | Marketing_Today
I'm working on a site where a canonical link is implemented as That's not the normal format that I am used to, as I would have written it as Is that a problem? QUESTION 2
Why do so many sites these days have a sitewide canonical tag which refers to itself as the canonical?
For example: http://www.site.co.uk/page has a canonical of0 -
Wordpress category url problem.
I have set up wordpress categories but the permalinks are showing as www.mydomain.com/?cat=12 as opposed to the category name. The child categories though work fine and show as www.mydomain.com/category/chidcatgegory I've obviously got my permalink settings wrong somewhere. How do I fix this?
On-Page Optimization | | SamCUK0 -
Changing to Friendly SEO Urls
This is my site, example of a product : [Link removed] Would I lose rank in Google for changing all to friendly SEO urls? Thank you
On-Page Optimization | | 7liberty0 -
How important is it to include the target keyword phrase in the page URL?
If I want to target a keyword phrase to a particular phrase, but do not want to change the URL of that page, will that negatively impact my rankings? I am also wondering if I can get around it by creating a new, short URL that 301 redirects to the original URL. Would that be as effective as including the keyword in the original URL?
On-Page Optimization | | susannajbost0 -
New Url Structure
Hey Guys We are working on a new site and in order to implement some of the new functions we need to restructure our url's , Will redirect everything correctly but I was looking for advice on the structure we need the word product / category subfolder for speed but would there be any benefit making them shorter ? what would you guys advise ? Category Current http://www.freestylextreme.com/uk/Home/Brands/DC-Shoe-Co-/default.aspx **New ** freestylextreme.com/uk/category/dc-shoe-co Product Current http://www.freestylextreme.com/uk/Home/Brands/DC-Shoe-Co-/Mens-DC-Shoe-Co-T-shirts/DC-Black-Unwind-T-Shirt---.aspx New freestylextreme.com/uk/product/dc-black-unwind-t-shirt
On-Page Optimization | | elbeno0 -
301 redirects / clean urls
hello everyone, we moved our site to a new platform that has url rewrite feature. we are building out a spreadsheet of the old aspx urls and the corresponding page on the new site. my dev tells me that its not important to redirect the old page to the new "clean url" page which sounds a bit odd to me ..example below. okay. so he says its the same difference to 301 redirect this url: http://72.3.181.97/catalog/DesignerDogBeds.aspx to this urls: https://www.k9electronics.com/product.php?productid=3474 instead of this clean url: http://www.k9electronics.com/designer-dog-beds/ can anyone give me any feedback on this? thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | k9byron0