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  4. Remove Product & Category from URLS in Wordpress

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Remove Product & Category from URLS in Wordpress

Intermediate & Advanced SEO
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  • moon-boots
    moon-boots Subscriber last edited by Sep 13, 2018, 5:19 PM

    Does anyone have experience removing /product/ and /product-category/, etc. from URLs in wordpress? I found this link from Wordpress which explains that this shouldn't be done, but I would like some opinions of those who have tried it please.

    https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/removing-product-product-category-or-shop-from-the-urls/

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • sergeystefoglo
      sergeystefoglo last edited by Sep 20, 2018, 8:31 PM Sep 20, 2018, 8:31 PM

      Hi there,

      I can't point you in a specific direction on how to go about doing this, but as Martijn mentioned it's important that you make sure:

      • 301 redirects are setup from old URLs to new URLs (/cat-name 301s to /prod-name)
      • ALL internal links are updated to /prod-name (for example, in the main navigation, footer, sidebars, etc.)
      • I believe what Martijn meant with the URL depth comment was that websites (particularly ecommerce sites) should be structured logically (mainly for topical authority). So for example, if you are a site that sells electronics, it's important from both a user and bot perspective that there is a domain.com/laptops/ page (which would be the category page). Under that, it makes sense to have a product page that would live on domain.com/laptops/macbook for example. It sounds like you are considering to remove the top-level category pages, which might result in a worse user experience and possibly a less-than-ideal setup for link equity being passed down to product pages.

      Martijn, is that what you were hinting at?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • moon-boots
        moon-boots Subscriber @moon-boots last edited by Sep 15, 2018, 4:52 PM Sep 15, 2018, 4:52 PM

        Any follow up?

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • moon-boots
          moon-boots Subscriber @Martijn_Scheijbeler last edited by Sep 14, 2018, 8:15 AM Sep 14, 2018, 8:15 AM

          www.website.com/category-name

          Then when you click through to a product:

          www.website.com/product-name

          I have encountered no problems doing this in Opencart. No 301 redirects were needed because the plugin takes care of this itself.

          I want to make sure that you're aware of the different internal structures in URL depth. That's probably why most people would advise you not to go this way.

          I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you mean in respect to different internal structures or why the above would be an issue.

          moon-boots 1 Reply Last reply Sep 15, 2018, 4:52 PM Reply Quote 0
          • Martijn_Scheijbeler
            Martijn_Scheijbeler last edited by Sep 14, 2018, 6:56 AM Sep 14, 2018, 6:56 AM

            Hi,

            You should be able to just change this in the permalinks. It's good to be reminded of some of the things that you need to take care of: redirects, making sure that all old links are pointing the new right way. But most of all, I want to make sure that you're aware of the different internal structures in URL depth. That's probably why most people would advise you not to go this way.

            Martijn.

            moon-boots 1 Reply Last reply Sep 14, 2018, 8:15 AM Reply Quote 1
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