Category Pages with Sub-Categories
-
The image will explain it all... Each category page starts on the subject of the first sub-category page. This happens twice (well actually 3 times since this section of the site is called showroom and it starts on the tab mowers).
Is this a terrible approach? If so, how could a site like this be better navigation-ally organized.
-
I think I have it. Yes, tabs could be the answer... unless this is getting too crazy.
So, on the front page I will use an image to say "showroom" and make the alt text = "zero turn mowers".
Then, beneath that main category I will also include: edgers, blowers, etc... as if they are sub categories (but in reality it will all be links to the 2nd layer if you know what I'm saying).
So, basically I will have a page that is optimized for zero turn mowers with this content:
/zero-turn-mowers
ZERO TURN MOWERS (h1)
TORO ZERO TURN MOWERS (1st tab & h2)
Description
Toro Zero Turn Homeowner (1st inner tab &h3)
Mower 1
Mower 2
etc...
Toro Zero Turn Commercial (2nd inner tab & h3)
Mower 1
Mower 2
etc...
GRAVELY ZERO TURN MOWERS (2nd tab and h2)
[same structure as Toro]
/edgers
[repeat structure for edgers 1 page]
Although, it is probably too ambitious to go after "zero turn mowers"... I wonder if this double tab structure is bad on page optimization or excellent as this is going to cause me to have a ton of content on each page.
-
You don't have to create anything to start planning out your URL structure. Lots of times when building something I think about the keywords and then just start laying out the URLs that I think will suport those keywords from a search and overall usability perspective. I'll do this even before I start mocking things up.
From your design you could put all mowers by one company on the same page and then have tabs to separate the content. Implement the tabs in javascript so that they just enhance some good solid HTML lists or divs. That would create one page for each mower brand. Are you hoping to SEO well for "mowers" or "toro mowers"? Perhaps you are already planning on doing this?
In regards to the anchor text, can you just link to "Toro Mowers" and then have people click the tab they want. Othewise perhaps you could do something link "Toro Mowers - Home", "Toro Mowers - Commercial". At least that gets the keywords at the front of the anchor text.
The structure of your site will be important for SEO but start by finding the list of keywords to target. Consider keyword competition and search volume when making the list. Come up with one page for each of those keywords. Then try to come up with an overall URL structure where you can SEO all those pages well. Finally, don't worry about SEO on each and every page you create. You are going to have some pages that add to the overall experience of your site that might not target keywords.
You are smart to think about creating only the pages that you have good content for. I wouldn't force myself to create any other pages.
-
I haven't actually created anything yet - hence the research.
Right now, my mock-up is completely based on ease of use for the user, and I am now factoring in SEO concerns - and this is my first concern.
Basically you have a homepage that has 3 main links in the middle of the page as well as some information about us, map, phone, etc... below. These links are:
- Showroom
- Workbench
- Knowledge Base
The screenshot you see on my first post is the "home" of the showroom.
As you can see, when you click Showroom - the first page you are taken to is Homeowner Toro Mowers.
That means the anchor text for showroom actually links to "homeowner toro mowers" - which can't be good.
Take it one step down and you see the same issue. Click the tab "gravely mowers" and you are taken to "homeowner gravely mowers" - with commercial being another tab.
In a perfect world I'm guessing I should have a page called "showroom" optimized for keywords.
Then, I should have a page called "mowers" with links to the different brands.
The company and I have no interest in creating all these "category home pages" because we don't have the content for them nor would they support the user in any sort of way.
This must be a common issue and there has to be a good answer to it - I just can't seem to come up with one.
I hope this helps...
-
Could you be more specific? I'd love to see the full URL path before of the categories and sub categories before I weigh in.
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
-
Inserting Keywords in Web Pages
Hello! Question: When I add chosen keywords to my site (in urls, title tags, meta description, page content, headers, etc), do I need to put the words on my webpage exactly as they appear in my keyword research? So if I searched "therapist bay area" and I want to include these keywords, for example, must I use those words in that order in a sentence or header on my homepage? Or is it enough to include each word somewhere on the page?
On-Page Optimization | | LPantell0 -
Home page and category page target same keyword
Hi there, Several of our websites have a common problem - our main target keyword for the homepage is also the name of a product category we have within the website. There are seemingly two solutions to this problem, both of which not ideal: Do not target the keyword with the homepage. However, the homepage has the most authority and is our best shot at getting ranked for the main keyword. Reword and "de-optimise" the category page, so it doesn't target the keyword. This doesn't work well from UX point of view as the category needs to describe what it is and enable visitors to navigate to it. Anybody else gone through a similar conundrum? How did you end up going about it? Thanks Julian
On-Page Optimization | | tprg0 -
Duplicate Page Content
Hey Moz Community, Newbie here. On my second week of Moz and I love it but have a couple questions regarding crawl errors. I have two questions: 1. I have a few pages with duplicate content but it say 0 duplicate URL's. How do I know what is duplicated in this instance? 2. I'm not sure if anyone here is familiar with an IDX for a real estate website. But I have this setup on my site and it seems as though all the links it generates for different homes for sale show up as duplicate pages. For instance, http://www.handyrealtysa.com/idx/mls...tonio_tx_78258 is listed as having duplicate page content compared with 7 duplicate URLS: http://www.handyrealtysa.com/idx/mls...tonio_tx_78247
On-Page Optimization | | HandyRealtySA
http://www.handyrealtysa.com/idx/mls...tonio_tx_78253
http://www.handyrealtysa.com/idx/mls...tonio_tx_78245
http://www.handyrealtysa.com/idx/mls...tonio_tx_78261
http://www.handyrealtysa.com/idx/mls...tonio_tx_78258
http://www.handyrealtysa.com/idx/mls...tonio_tx_78260
http://www.handyrealtysa.com/idx/mls...tonio_tx_78260 I've attached a screenshot that shows 2 of the pages that state duplicate page content but have 0 duplicate URLs. Also you can see somewhat about the idx duplicate pages. rel="canonical" is functioning on these pages, or so it seems when I view the source code from the page. Any help is greatly appreciated. skitch.png0 -
Category page canonical tag
I know this question has been asked a few times on here but I'm looking for very specific advice. Currently when you go to a category, say http://www.bronterose.co.uk/range.html, a canonical tag is added to the head of the page. There are plenty of "variant" pages which carry the same tag, for example: /range.html?p=2
On-Page Optimization | | crichardson9
/range.html?p=3
/range.html?dir=asc&order=price
/range.html?dir=asc&limit=all&order=price Is it wise to push the "link juice" for each of these variant pages to the top level page? Or should each variant page have its own unique canonical tag? After reading many blog posts, guides and papers I'm truly confused! Any general guidance or recommendations would be much appreciated. Chris.1 -
What if Paginated Pages all have PageRank?
Paginated Pages, page 2,3,4 etc.... they aren't supposed to have a PageRank, right? If they are only linked to from themselves, only the original page, Page 1, is supposed to be showing PageRank? I'm trying to double check that I am handling this right. I'm not using canonical, or noindex or any of that... just using rel next and prev, which I thought would be fine. Thoughts?
On-Page Optimization | | MadeLoud0 -
Third party pages
Suppose you are using a third party tool such as an affiliate program. Typically, all the files are organized under one subdirectory. In addition, you may have little or no ability to modify any of the files in terms of SEO. Would you recommend hiding the entire subdirectory with a noindex? Best,
On-Page Optimization | | ChristopherGlaeser
Christopher0 -
Redirect and page ranking
We used to have a good page rank of Google, but now our page rank dropped to zero. A few months ago we did a redirect from our www.???.com to non-www.???.com, because non-www.???.com is now our main website. We also have a number of other domains which we redirect to our main website non-www.???.com Do you think these redirects are causing the problem, and if so what can we do to fix it? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | poupette0 -
Would it be bad to change the canonical URL to the most recent page that has duplicate content, or should we just 301 redirect to the new page?
Is it bad to change the canonical URL in the tag, meaning does it lose it's stats? If we add a new page that may have duplicate content, but we want that page to be indexed over the older pages, should we just change the canonical page or redirect from the original canonical page? Thanks so much! -Amy
On-Page Optimization | | MeghanPrudencio0