Google & Site Architecture
-
Hi
I've been reading the following article about Google's quality signals here:
They mention - 3) All your categories should be accessible from the main menu. All your web pages should be labelled with the relevant categories.
Is this every category? We have some say 3 levels deep, and they aren't all in the menu. I'd like them to be, so would be good to make a case for it.
Thank you
-
Hi
Oh not to worry, there's no rush
It's a development issue, but they are currently reviewing this and we have requested lower levels in the menu structure.
-
Let me do a quick audit of this I will get back to you right away sorry about the long wait. When you talking about the inability to change navigation (level 3) Can I ask is it because you do not have Development or rights or is it a CMS issue?
Tom
-
Becky I am so sorry for the long delay I will reply to you tomorrow by this time
Tom
-
Thank you very much for your replies & advice
Here is an example of our site structure, our URL structure is very simple, nothing sits within a folder.
So if I want to rank this page - http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/personal-protection-equipment-lockers
The structure at present is:
Home > Cupboards & Lockers > (linked from main nav) > Lockers (linked from main nav) > PPE Lockers - Linked from Lockers page not in main nav.
In order to better rank the PPE lockers page (the page does need better onpage optimisation) I was thinking of product additional content, user guide/blogs - linking to the page this way.
My struggle is, I don't have the ability to control the top navigation - it's automatic and won't show links to level 3 pages.
Becky
-
Think CRAWL BUDGET
the crawl budget is the number of requests made by Googlebot to your website in a particular period of time. In simple terms, it’s the number of opportunities to present Google the fresh content on your website.
See this to understand
https://www.deepcrawl.com/knowledge/best-practice/optimize-crawl-budget-tips-examples/
If you ever repeat a URL path more than twice, the URL will not be indexed. For example, this URL would not be indexed in Google.
Even if the repeated paths are broken up by another unique path, the URL will not be indexed. e.g.
This URL would not be indexed.
example.com/path/path/unique/path/
This is because Google thinks it has hit a URL trap.
URL traps occur most often when a relative link includes the same path as where the page is located. Relative URLs are added to the end of the paths of the URL which contains the link.
For example, if you had a page like example.com/path/page.html, which included a relative link back to itself using “/path/page1.html”, the actual URL of the link is example.com/path/path/page1.html. If this page is returned by the server, it will contain another relative link to “/path/page1.html”, which is actually the URL example.com/path/path/path/page1.html. And so ad infinitum.
See https://www.deepcrawl.com/knowledge/best-practice/never-repeat-pathnames-in-urls-more-than-twice/
Build Your Universal Navigation
- Identify why visitors come to your site. You probably have a pretty good idea of what people want already, but check your web analytics:
- What search terms do visitors use before they get to your site? Keywords used by incoming visitors tell you what your visitors were looking for before they clicked through to your site. Follow up to see which pages they visited - did they find what they were looking for?
- If you’re tracking internal site search, what search terms do visitors use once they’re on your site? On average, only 10% of visitors use site search. So, it’s safe to assume that most people only use site search if they have a hard time finding what they want with your navigation. What terms are visitors searching for? Do you have that page? Is it hidden?
- What pages on your site get the most traffic? If those are the pages that you want to get the most traffic, keep those in mind as you build your navigational structure to make sure they're easy for visitors to find. If they aren't particularly high conversion pages, what's a similar page that you can steer those visitors to?
- What are your top exit pages? If they’re locations or external contact information, that’s probably something a lot of your visitors are looking for. You should include that in your top navigation.
Divide your products/key pages into categories.
- Usability experts recommend “card sorting”: put your products on cards, lay them out on a flat surface so you can see them all, and cluster similar items together. There are also a few websites out there that will let you sort cards without taking up so much floor space:http://www.optimalworkshop.com/optimalsort.htm andhttp://uxpunk.com/websort/
https://www.distilled.net/blog/seo/site-navigation-for-seo/
Hope this helps,
Tom
- Identify why visitors come to your site. You probably have a pretty good idea of what people want already, but check your web analytics:
-
Hi,
Ideally, you want everything that's important as high up the menu structure as possible without making it too unusable for actual customers.
If it's 3 levels deep, then it's starting to get to the stage where I'd either look to move the category up if it's an important one, or possible merge it with something else that's relevant to be able to get it higher in the menu structure. Ultimately it's about managing your crawl budget and if you're burying something 3+ levels down, it's less likely to be regularly crawled unless it's incredibly popular from external links etc.
Flatter, shallower navigation and menus are always best as long as they're still usable...
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
-
How long for google to de-index old pages on my site?
I launched my redesigned website 4 days ago. I submitted a new site map, as well as submitted it to index in search console (google webmasters). I see that when I google my site, My new open graph settings are coming up correct. Still, a lot of my old site pages are definitely still indexed within google. How long will it take for google to drop off or "de-index" my old pages? Due to the way I restructured my website, a lot of the items are no longer available on my site. This is on purpose. I'm a graphic designer, and with the new change, I removed many old portfolio items, as well as any references to web design since I will no longer offering that service. My site is the following:
Algorithm Updates | | rubennunez
http://studio35design.com0 -
Google Search Subsections
Hi! I want to know how can I put the URL from a page like that: http://i.imgur.com/qK1NLjq.png?1 I mean: "www.calafate.com › El Chaltén" Is it possible? Thanks!!!
Algorithm Updates | | Seomediabros0 -
Strange Google SERP Layout: Anyone?
I haven't been able to repeat this, but I just saw a strange Google SERP layout. The screenshot is attached below. Has anyone else seen something like this? I kind of rubbed my eyes and wondered 'if it was kicking in'. ca2JqaP
Algorithm Updates | | Travis_Bailey0 -
Getting Listed in Google Places
How do I get listed in Google Places if I don't have a physical address? EG: I am a medical health insurance company in Colo Springs, Colorado, but service 20 cities? What is the best procedure? Getting a mailbox at Mailboxes, etc. or UPS Store?
Algorithm Updates | | GregWalt0 -
The Google/Yahoo Connection
I have been telling myself and clients for a while that you do not need to specially SEO things for different search engines. While I stand by this (staunchly) I can't help but notice how SLOW yahoo is to pick up my SEO updates and rank them as compared to google. Sometimes I see Rank increases within a day or two (or sooner) But Yahoo is still well behind in their caching and calculations.
Algorithm Updates | | TheGrid0 -
Why Google Cache is not showing ?
Hello Everyone, I have a question for you. Today when I checked cache:www.bollywoodshaadis.com on Google.com, it is showing following message. 404. <ins>That’s an error.</ins> The requested URL /search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=519&q=cache%3Awww.bollywoodshaadis.com&oq=cache%3Awww.bollywoodshaadis.com&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=2501l16050l0l16394l30l30l0l23l0l0l353l1781l0.1.4.2l7l0 was not found on this server. I was able to see sitelinks till yesterday but they also have disappeared now. Can someone please tell me why is this happening? Is this a temporary issue? or something needs to be done.
Algorithm Updates | | SEOcandy0 -
Can AJAX implementation affect the rankings in Google Panda?
Hi there, I have the following situation with one of our job sites. We migrate the site to a new application, which is better from design point of view and also usability. For this we use a lot AJAX especially in searches. So every time a user is filtering down their search new results will be shown on the page, at the same url and with no page load. But, having this implementation. affected Bounce rate - which increased from 38% to nearly 60%, PI/visits - which are now half, at 3 and also Avg Time on Site is half that is used to be coming to 2,5 min from nearly 6 min. From Rand post, it is clearly that the content is very important in Google Panda, and all of these parameters we should consider, as it is telling the quality of the content. So, my question will be, can this site be hit by Panda updates (maybe later on) because Bounce Rate, PI/Visits and Avg Time on site, decreased in such way? At the moment we don't measure the Ajax impresion, but as I understood that we can do that though virtual pages in GA, does anyone of you have the experience how to handle this? Won't be this an artificial increase? Thanks, Irina
Algorithm Updates | | InformMedia0 -
Does Google index Wordpress pages with frames
Does Google or other search engines index Wordpress pages that use frames? Here is the site in question: http://www.source-nutrition.com/son/
Algorithm Updates | | BradBorst0