URL Structure with deep Categories
-
Ladies n gents
Which sort of URLs do you suggest for Webshops with a deep structure of categories:
http://www.yourdomain.com/cat1/cat2/cat3/cat4/cat5/cat6/
(could get really long)
or better use just the last 2 categories:
http://www.yourdomain.com/cat5/cat6/
?
thanks for your suggestions
seth
-
Thanks for your help.
@ryan&joe: yes - I do know about that issue - unfortunately i dont have any chance to flatten our navigation (only because of people working with the navigation in our company) - im trying it for already 2 years, but its getting better and better
-
An overlooked use for directory structure is for your analytics. Lunametrics has a great post that will get you thinking about this over at http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2010/09/22/designing-google-analytics-friendly-site/.
-
Seth, Ryan's response gets at a more important issue than the URL, so if you can flatten out your navigation, I would recommend that.
In response to the question you asked, I would recommend http://www.yourdomain.com/cat5/cat6/. With six categories in your URL, you'll be targeting too many keywords with each page and potentially having too many pages competing for the same keywords. SEO isn't all about getting as much traffic as you can, but getting it to the right pages so you can convert.
-
You are free to use whatever structure makes the most sense for you. I would recommend taking some time to think out the structure. Make sure it is sensible and does not add categories which are not useful.
What is important from a SEO perspective is how many clicks does it take users to access your pages.
Example 1 - URL: www.yourdomain.com/products/sports/tennis/rackets/wilson/x1000
If you have a link on your home page for "current specials" or "product of the month" that goes directly to the x1000, then it is 1-click for users to find the page. If you offer a link to "Wilson tennis rackets" then it would be 2 clicks for users to find the x1000 page.
Example 2 - URL: www.yourdomain.com/tennis-rackets/wilson-x1000
Without any special links it would be 2 clicks from your home page to see your x1000 page. From a SEO point of view this would not be as good as the first example above with the direct link to the item.
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
-
Query string category pagination
I've been reading some posts on the merits and pitfalls of using rel=prev, rel=next and canonical, but I just wanted to double check the right solution. example.com/birth-announcements example.com/birth-announcements?p=2 example.com/birth-announcements?p=3 With a small selection of products on each variation. So at the moment there is a canonical on all of them to the base example.com/birth-announcements. The problem is we are having difficulty getting the products within p=* indexed. I don't think from all I read that rel=prev/rel=next is the way to go. Would the solution (or best way to go) be to create a "view-all" filter and set that to be the canonical URL, so all product URLs are in clear focus for Google. The volume of products won't (shouldn't) have too much of an impact on page load. Or am I wrong and rel=prev/rel=next is a feasible solution?
Technical SEO | | MickEdwards0 -
URL Structure On Site - Currently it's domain/product-name NOT domain/category/product name is this bad?
I have a eCommerce site and the site structure is domain/product-name rather than domain/product-category/product-name Do you think this will have a negative impact SEO Wise? I have seen that some of my individual product pages do get better rankings than my categories.
Technical SEO | | the-gate-films0 -
Numbers in URL
Hey guys! Need your many awesome brains. 🙂 This may be a very basic question but am hoping you can help me out with some insights beyond "because Google says it's better". 🙂 I only recently started working with SEO, and I work for a SaaS website builder company that has millions of open/active user sites, and all our user sites URLs, instead of www.mydomainname.com/gallery or myusername.simplesite.com/about, we use numbers, so www.mysite.com/453112 or myusername.simplesite.com/426521 The Sales manager has asked me to figure out if it will pay off for us in terms of traffic (other benefits?) to change it from the number system to the "proper" and right way of setting up these URLs. He's looking for rather concrete answers, as he usually sits with paid search and is therefore used to the mindset of "if we do x it will yield us y in z months". I'm finding it quite difficult to find case studies/other concrete examples beyond the generic, vague implication that it will simply be "better" (when for example looking at SEO checklists and search engine guidelines). Will it make a difference? How so? I have to convince our developers of the importance and priority of this adjustment, or it will just drown in the many projects they already have. So truly, any insights would be so very welcome. Thank you!
Technical SEO | | michelledemaree2 -
URL not indexed but shows in results?
We are working on a site that has a whole section that is not indexed (well a few pages are). There is also a problem where there are 2 directories that are the same content and it is the incorrect directory with the indexed URLs. The problem is if I do a search in Google to find a URL - typically location + term then I get the URL (from the wrong directory) up there in the top 5. However, do a site: for that URL and it is not indexed! What could be going on here? There is nothing in robots or the source, and GWT fetch works fine.
Technical SEO | | MickEdwards0 -
Wordpress Categories and Over-Optimization Question
I would like to switch my sidebar from listing Category Name with posts listed below each- to a concise custom menu. This custom menu would list the top three products I am promoting first, and then go on to list the categories on my site. Currently it looks like this (but with 6 categories, with between 7-10 items in each - this is on EVERY page) Widgets
Technical SEO | | PrivatePartners
-Green Widget
-Blue Widget Gidwets
-Big Gidwet
-Small Gidwet I rank well in google right now, but I am concerned that changing my sidebar will result in a penalty. Maybe for over-optimizing my top three products I promote, or possibly for trying to control the flow of link juice. Can anyone chime in here who has adjusted their site structure within wordpress, and tell me what you found worked best? ** Before anyone asks**, this structure does work much better for the user. My sidebar now is massive, and is confusing even to me.0 -
Second URL
Hi We have a .com and a .co.uk Main website is .co.uk, we also have a landing page for the .com If we redirect the .com to the .co.uk, will it create duplicate content ... May seem like a silly question, but want to be sure that that the visitors cant access our website at both urls, as that would be duplicate content Thanks in advance John
Technical SEO | | Johnny4B0 -
35 Categories + sub-categories for online store, can it hurt SEO?
this is my online store http://www.furnacefilterscanada.com I experiencing new site architecture for better buyer experience. I found this solution for setting up categories: http://filtration-montreal.mybigcommerce.com I ask this questions many times about my site architecture, I find this solution, using around 35 categories and sub-categories. Is it O.K. or it can hurt SEO to have to many categories. See example on this trial version of BigCommerce: http://filtration-montreal.mybigcommerce.com I will use the top horizontal menu for the most popular furnace filters sizes. Also, I want to use this cascading dropdown option in the header http://www.asp.net/ajaxLibrary/AjaxControlToolkitSampleSite/CascadingDropDown/CascadingDropDown.aspx where I wiil setup 3 options to select: filter width filter lenght filter depth What is your opinions, I'm I on the right path? Thank you, BigBlaze
Technical SEO | | BigBlaze2050 -
When URL rewrite can lead to un pretty URLs
Hi Mozzers. I've a client that has done a little bit of mess rewriting the URLs of its site. In fact, also the data base driven URLs are rewritten, but the dev forgot to change the space with "-", so that now the 95% of the URLs are like this one: http://www.portalesardegna.com/search/Appartamenti e Residence/ Obviously not really a pretty URL. I am not so sure if this issue has an SEO consecuences (in fact, the site ranks pretty well also with those kind of url), but I am thinking more on usability issue. Could you suggest me any easy fix to this rewrite problem?
Technical SEO | | gfiorelli12