URL Construction
-
Working on an old site that currently has category urls (that productively rank) like this example:
LakeNameBoating.com/category/705687/rentals
I want to enhance the existing mid page one rank for terms related to "Lake Name Boat Rentals," 301ing the old urls to the new, would you construct the new urls as:
LakeNameBoating.com/lake-name-boat-rentals
or...
LakeNameBoating.com/boat-rentals
And why? It's all for one particular lake with "name" being just an anonymous placeholder example.
Thanks!
-
Awesome! Glad to hear it!
-
Here's an update. Went with LakeNameBoating.com/boat-rentals. It all worked out great. Thank you all for the help.
-
In our experience the keywords in the URL do play (but pales in comparison to other on page signals). If you have multiple iterations of these sites, why not do some A/B testings to see what woks best.
Acknowledging what the previous posters are saying but if you are going to leverage this, do a little key word research and find out what the predicted searches look like. We do find that order can make a difference, i.e. Lake Tahoe Boat Rental vs Boat Rental Lake Tahoe. Maybe play with the inverted order of the title tags as a contrast.
Again, other signals are much more important but all things being equal we have seen positive movements with keywords in the URL.
-
Fair enough! You're definitely not wrong—the structure you're proposing is absolutely better than the one you're currently using. Whether it's worth it to change things now is up to you. As long as you're aware of the risk and you're confident that it's worth it, I say go for it.
-
Okay, well, thanks guys. I kind of thought you'd feel a little stronger about the value of changing urls. Especially since Moz has tools that grade lower for janky urls. My own experience is a messed-up url is not a positive and well worth the slight/temporary decrease in page authority while that gets sorted out.
Anyhoo, thanks again!
-
To be honest, I tend to agree with Logan when it comes to changing URLs. That said, if you're fairly sure that simplifying your URLs would help, I'd go with the second option.
-
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the message.
Would you go with new urls when the old urls are so bad...
-
If you're sure you want to use a new URL, I'd go with the second one (LakeNameBoating.com/boat-rentals). The name of the lake being in the domain would make using it again feel redundant.
That's pretty much just personal preference, though.
-
Hi Logan,
Thanks for the response. I don't know, I've had a lot of success cleaning up non-search friendly urls like this.
In regards to the link above, Google saying "don't bother" may not be the whole story. But thank you for your take on it.
Finally, a cleaner/more purposeful url would have better CTR.
Anyone else?
-
Hi,
I never recommend URL changes for the purpose of improving rankings. While URL structure is a ranking factor, it's not a big enough one to justify restructuring your URLs for. See this article for more on how insignificant this is as a ranking signal.
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
-
Changing Url Removes Backlink
Hello MOZ Community, I have question regarding Bad Backlink Removal. My Site's Post's Image got 4 to 5k backlinks from unknown sites and also their is no contact details on their site so that i can contact them to remove. So, I have an idea for which i want suggestion " If I change the url that receieves backlinks" does this will remove backlinks? For Example: https://example.com/test/ got 5k backlinks if I change this url to https://examplee.com/test-failed/ does this will remove those 5k backlinks? If not then How Can I remove those Backlinks? I Know about disavow but this takes time.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Jackson210 -
Www. or naked url?
Hi everyone, I am about to start a new WordPress site and debating whether to use www or naked URL for the URL structure. Using naked URL makes sense from a branding and minimalistic perspective but I am reading that using naked URL might have some technical deficiencies. Specifically, cookie issues and DNS can't be cname. Are these technical deficiencies still valid when using naked url? Would appreciate any feedback on this! Cheers
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nsereke1 -
Canonical URL Multidomain Geolocation Based
Hey there Mozzers, I have a question on the implementation of the canonical tag. I have 3 TLDs that redirect depending the GeoLocation of the person entering the site. www.example.com www.example.co.uk www.example.com.au The content is the same to all of those. Should I choose 1 of them that all the canonicals should point or should all them point to themselves with the canonical tag?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AngelosS0 -
Images with a token in the url, in Drupal. How does it affect to SEO?
Hi everyone! I am checking now a website that works with Drupal, and I found that images have urls like this... http://www.brandname.com/sites/default/files/styles/directory_xyz/public/name-of-the-picture.png?itok=T89RpzrK I was wondering how an URL like that with the token at the and, can affect to SEO. I cound't find anything. Anyone knows? Thank you!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | teconsite0 -
Change relative to absolute urls?
Is it worth the time to go through a site that was built in Dreamweaver and change the relative urls to absolute urls?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | kimmiedawn0 -
Recommended URL Structure
Hello, We are currently adding a new section of content on our site related to Marketing and more specifically 'Digital Marketing' (research reports, trend studies, etc). Over time (several months, or 1-3 years) we will add more 'general' marketing content. My question is which of the following URL structures makes more sense from an SEO perspective (and how best to quantify the benefit of one over another): www.mysite.com/marketing/digital/research/... www.mysite.com/digital-marketing/research/.. Thanks, Mike
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mike-gart0 -
Does having a trailing slash make a url different than the same url without the trailing slash?
Does having a trailing slash make a url different than the same url without the trailing slash? www.example.com/services Or www.example.com/services**/** Does Google consider these to be the same link or does Google treat them as different links?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | webestate0 -
Product URL structure for a marketplace model
Hello All. I run an online marketplace start-up that has around 10000 products listed from around 1000+ sellers. We are a similar model to etsy/ebay in the sense that we provide a platform but sellers to list products and sell them. I have a URL structure question. I have read http://www.seomoz.org/q/how-to-define-best-url-structure-for-product-pages which seems to show everyone suggests to use Products: products/category/product-name Categories: products/category as the structure for product pages. Because we are a marketplace (our category structure has multiple tiers sometimes up to 3) our sellers choose a category for products to go in. How we have handled this before is we have used: Products: products/last-tier-category-chosen/product-name (eg: /products/sweets-and-snacks/fluffy-marshmallows) Categories: products/category (eg: /products/sweets-and-snacks) However we have two issues with this: The categories can sometimes change, or users can change them which means the links completely change and undo any link building work built up. The urls can get a bit long and am worried that the most important data (the fluffy marshmallow that reflects in the page title and content) is left till too late in the URL. As a result we plan to change our URL structure (we are going through a rebuild anyhow so losing old links is not an issue here) so that the new structure was: Products: products/product-name(eg: /products/fluffy-marshmallows) Categories: products/category (eg: /products/sweets-and-snacks) My concern about doing this however, and question here, is whether this willnegatively impact the "structure" of pages when google crawls our marketplace.Because "fluffy marshmallows" will no longer technically fit into the url structure of "sweets and snacks". I dont know if this would have a negative impact or not. FYI etsy (one of the largest marketplace models in the world) us the latter approach and do not have categories in product urls, eg: listing/42003836/vintage-french-industrial-inspired-side Any ideas on this? Many thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | LiamPatterson0