Site structure suggestions/feedback
-
I asked this on Reddit and got some some decent answers. I'm curious to see what the pro's of SEOmoz think.
I've got a lead generation site for forklift parts--liftxparts.com. You can think of it similar to car parts, where we have sections for specific brands (e.x. Toyota forklift parts) and sections for specific categories (e.x. forklift filters).
Right now, the site is structured in two main levels: the top level is a dozen or so brands (separate pages for Toyota forklift parts, Clark forklift parts, etc), and then the second level is the categories (separate pages for a dozen or so different categories like forklift filters, forklift engine parts, etc.).If you check out one of the pages, like Clark forklift parts for example (our top landing page)--liftxparts.com/clark-forklift-parts.html, you'll see that on the brand pages (they're all structured the same), we list all the different categories (with links to the same second level category pages) and "search" buttons. All pages point to the same lead capture form.This has been working pretty well--about 90% of visitors end up on our lead capture form, and a high percentage of those convert.
We're working on increasing organic traffic now and I'm thinking our structure could use some improvement.Looking at the analytics, there are a lot more impressions for keywords like "clark forklift" than "clark forklift parts". One gap I've uncovered is while our average position, and by extension CTR and traffic, for phrases like "clark forklift parts" is quite good, it's not so good for broader and higher searched terms like "clark forklift". Should we add another level of hierarchy targeted to just general brands? So now we have content for clark forklift parts, but should we add a page for terms like "clark forklift"? Or should we just add some broader content to the existing brand pages? The pages are quite long already, I'm afraid adding more content to the bottom of the page isn't very functional.
Our thinking is that we can increase average position for higher searched terms by adding content targeted to those terms. The question is how exactly to go about it and how to work it into our current site structure?
Any feedback related to our site structure or even just related ideas about other ways to approach our goal of increasing organic traffic would be very much appreciated! Thanks!
-
Yes Wisam, I would expand that list of specific keywords. Do you monitor your on-site search? Do you look at your keywords in Adwords (if you are doing PPC) for the keywords that actually trigger your ads (versus terms that you are bidding on)? Both of those places are great places to get ideas for keywords permutations you may haven't yet considered.
In addition to the larger e-commerce site that I do in-house SEO I also do SEO for a very tight niche site. It is a product line with which I am extremely familiar. For that site alone Itrack about 250 keywords in SEOMoz...so by all means, yes, expand your targeted keyword list and track them all. I can guarantee you'll find some gems that you've probably never considered.
Also, here's another way to find "high opportunity" keywords. Use Avinash Kaushik's custom reports for tracking keywords based on length of keywords string. You can find more about that here http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/best-downloadable-custom-web-analytics-reports/
Pay attention especially to the performance of long tail versus short tail keywords. Here's a link to a blog post that will, I hope, not only blow your mind, but change your life! Okay a little extreme I know, but my God Avinash Kaushik isuch a freaking genius!
-
Hi Dana,
Thanks for your quick reply.
I see your point about making sure you have the right goal in mind in targeting broad keywords. A quick search of "clark forklifts" does speak to what you hinted at--virtually all of the first page of the SERPs is dedicated to actual equipment and not parts.
I guess the logic was, we're currently getting a nice chunk of traffic from that keyword (and many others like it), and since over 90% of visitors end up on our "search form", you have to assume that a good amount of traffic coming from those broad keywords is ending up on the search form (although, as I'm typing this, I guess I could just check GA instead of assuming haha) and so if we can increase average position for those words, we can increase CTR, which will increase traffic, and, finally, increase conversions.
If targeting broader keywords maybe isn't the best strategy for increasing organic traffic, should we be expanding our list of relavent keywords and target stuff that we're not currently ranking for, or increasing position for words we are currently ranking for? For the relavent keywords we are doing well with now, virtually all of them are in the top 3, it doesn't seem like we can squeeze more traffic out of those existing relavent keywords (again as I'm typing this, maybe the increase from around 5% of traffic in third position to around 18% in first position, multiplied across many of our existing keywords does add up?). How many of those targeted and tight keywords is reasonable for us to try and target? Right now, we're only tracking about 30.
Thanks!
Wisam
-
hi,
There are many ways to organize pages on a site. Unfortunately, some common techniques of organizing information can also harm your SEO strategy.
Sites organized by a hierarchy determined without reference to SEO might not be ideal because the site architecture is unlikely to emphasize links to information a searcher finds most relevant. An example would be burying high-value keyword pages deep within a sites structure, as opposed to hear the top, simply because those pages don't fit easily within a "home", "about us", contact" hierarchy.
Please check these for better understanding about site structure
The Pillars Of Strategic SEO & A Primer On Website Design
Intelligent Site Structure for better SEO
Getting Site Architecture Right
Good luck
-
Hi RealW,
Well, as an in-house SEO I am very familiar with this scenario. I might have more questions (meant to be provocative) for you than answers. I guess we'll call it "the Socratic method of SEO"
Okay, so here we go:
Why do you want to target the term "clark forklift?" Do you sell Clark forklifts, or just Clark forklift parts?
If you don't sell Clark forklifts, and that's what people are looking to shop for, what are they going to find at your site that gives them what they searched for?
Are you just plain after more traffic (and not necessarily conversions)?"
When you are targeting keywords for your SEO, you have to (I stress HAVE to) check your ego at the door. This isn't necessarily hard for SEOs but it can be next to impossible for business owners and CEOs who feel like they should rank for every keyword under the sun.
Here's an example straight from my work today. I got a message from the CEO (I am the in-house SEO) stating his dissatisfaction that we weren't ranking for this term: "mackie th-12a/" I researched the term and discovered that nearly every competitor outranking us had higher page authority, domain authority, more links and a more recent cache date. Not only that but the niche the product seems to appeal to is the DJ market, while we primarily sell to churches. I sent him all the data comparing domains, together with my evaluation that it was the wrong niche and said point blank "we don't rank for this term because we aren't very relevant for this term."
Given that your current site structure and keyword choices are converting well, I wouldn't mess with that. If you go broader at terms that you aren't particularly relevant for then all you are doing is getting traffic, throwing it at the wall and hoping something sticks. That takes a heck of a lot of work and effort for precious little return.
Make a list of productive, relevant keywords and stick to them like glue. If you find you can't make a business out of that because the niche you created was to tight, then you need to broaden your business model before you broaden your keyword list. Going at it the other way around is...well "===" backwards.
Just my two cents! I wish you good luck and hope something here helps!
Dana
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
-
SEO for a Domain which contains Multiple individual sites
My website structure www.example.com (wordpress installation number 1)
On-Page Optimization | | kevinbp
www.example.com/forum/ (vbulletin installtion)
www.example.com/shop/ (wordpress installation number 2) Each of these individual pages contains a fresh wordpress/vbulletin installation with their individual admin control panel. Am i doing this website entirely wrong? Is my website considered as a single website or does Google classify it as 3 different websites? My Ranking page is, www.example.com, and by blog post is www.example.com/forum/blog. When i do a link within my blog entry to my main ranking page, does it count as external or internal link?0 -
SEO for a site in development
We've recently taken on a new client for an initial 6 months for SEO (until their new site is going live) to help build traffic to the site. They are currently getting a new website built so don't want work done on their current site... but due to the current structure it is making it difficult for us to improve rankings for a number of keywords. They are essentially a booking engine for services across the UK so it is just a home page with a search filtering through their services, locations and dates which leads to a results page. It is a combination of services and locations we need to target keywords for but there are no appropriate landing pages due to the site layout. The one thing they are happy for us to work on is the blog, so my question is would it be best to create landing pages on the blog targeting keywords such as 'sports massages in London' and build links to these pages? Then when it is time for the new site, with new appropriate landing pages, simply 301 redirect these pages? If anyone has any input on this idea or suggestions for other ways about it we'd be delighted to hear from you Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | Will_Craig0 -
SEO for New Magento Site??!?
Hi All, We have had a new site delivered by our developers (hurrah...the old one was to terrible for words) but we seem to be having a lot of issues with the new Magento platform. What they have done is used the community version and tried to customize it. I came on to this project about a month into the build and although Magento does seem to do a lot things well there do seem to be some problems. From an SEO prespective we have seen some increase on some search terms and a drop of in others. I would be interested in hearing from other Magento users about their experiences with this platform and any ideas on how to crank up the activity. Our site is at www.nationwidepharmacies.co.uk . There are few odd bits including the side navigation which seems to be very clunky and not overly customizable in this version. Any useful criticism would also be well received. Look forward to hearing Nic
On-Page Optimization | | nicc19760 -
Moving a site from .cfm to Wordpress - How to keep the authority?
Hi guys, My client has a site built with Cold Fusion (web pages end in .cfm) and we're moving them over to Wordpress (for many reasons), keeping the same menu structure and navigation. Their previous SEO company was pretty awful, however, they did manage to establish some decent authority/backlinks for the website and its 20 or so pages. My questions: I assume I'll want to do 301 redirects for each page, possibly by editing the .htaccess file? Any advice on this? Anything else I need to consider in this move? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | alpen0 -
Good Internal Site Structure Idea?
Hello SEOMoz, After reading a bunch of your Site Structure articles, I've decided to make ours more flat. There are numerous pages on our site which are linked to directly from our homepage, wasting mysterious amounts of Link Juice every day. I want to remove most of these links so that the Fewer, and now more heavily weighted, Homepage Links will be more powerful... but I am worried that the pages which I am knocking down to the 3rd tier level already have high rank and are distributing this Juice to other pages. The problem is that 3 of these 9 pages are great for assisting our sales team, so I cannot take those 2 links off of the homepage...so I will be forced to Nofollow them instead. I am worried this is cutting down the number of pages on the site, also cutting out content which was previously indexed. Is this whole thing a good idea at all? And should I just leave those 2 pages alone because I can't remove the link? I'm thinking maybe I should rel=canonical it back to the homepage? I am ultimately trying to rank the homepage for the keyword "POS Software" and this is my on-site strategy for it. Maybe adding a link from those 2 pages that say "POS Software" back to the homepage is the best bet in this scenario? I am trying to learn the absolute best thing to do instead of guessing. Thanks! Derek
On-Page Optimization | | DerekM880 -
Customer Review Capture / Google Approved Review Sites
We are interested in showing customer reviews on our website (in UK for seo purposes- UGC) and are initially reluctant to use a 'What customer say' or Testimonial page as we think customers may think we have just made these reviews up? I wanted to ask what methods you folks use to capture reviews? If you use 3rd party providers do you have any recommendations? (I found this link but it seems a little outdated as it doesn't include for example eKomi:http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-rank-well-in-google-products-search-a-big-list-of-places-to-get-reviews) Thanks in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | jannkuzel0 -
Can embedding videos from other sites help SEO?
I work for an eCommerce site and many of the vendors we get our products from have videos our their site that explain how the products work and the different features of them, ect. We really have done nothing with video marketing, and would like to create some of our own unique videos, but this will be impossible for the vast majority of the products on our site. We know from a content standpoint embedding videos from our vendors to our product pages will be beneficial, but at the same time it shows our competitors and other site visitors where we are getting our products from which we would rather not do. How will this effect us from an SEO standpoint though? Will it help us to have new content, even though it is embedded from another site? Or will it hurt us because it is not unique? Or will it have no effect at all? Thanks for you help!
On-Page Optimization | | ClaytonKendall0