Is my URL structure ideal?
-
.
-
Thanks everyone. This was very helpful. I will NOT include the state abbreviation. Ryan - I have an uppercase letter in every word. I will go ahead and format everything so that only lowercase letters are used. Thanks!
-
Simon and Yannick both offer good advice. One item I would add, it is a best practice to only use lower case letters in your URLs. If you do make a change, switch to all lower case letters as well.
I would also not ever change a URL in an attempt to stuff a keyword into it. URLs beyond the domain name are a very very low ranking factor. I would more likely want to change from your proposed URL to your current URL rather then vice-versa. In all likelihood, you can change your URL to mydomain/page=10 and it wont change your ranking.
To be clear, your current URL structure is desirable mostly because it is easy for people to read which can benefit CTR, and if someone links to your site using the URL they will include your important keywords. It may be a ranking factor but think of it as 0.001% type of thing which is not likely to ever make a difference. Your loss of link juice from the redirect is more impacting then such an incredibly minor change.
-
Hi Alexander, a good question.
I'm not sure it will benefit yourself or your visitors by adding in a State element such as FL to your URL structure. Main reason being 'semantic search', Google will know that FL means Florida and vice versa.
The actual decision probably lies with your keyword research, as in what the differences tend to be in search volumes between States and State Abbreviations for your main target keyword searches.
The shorter option without eg. FL looks neater from a user experience perspective, slightly easier to read. So long as you optimise the on-page well such as Titles, Descriptions, H1 tags etc then you'll be able to cater for both with the shorter URL.
Hope that helps, Regards, Simon
-
Hi there Alexander
Personally i would look at the following seeing that you want to have areas in your service at urls'.
mydomain.com/Florida/surety-bonds/Contractor-License-Bond/
That way you can build relevance over the area for other services too such as below if you know what i mean
-
The only thing you might want to change in your site/url structure is drill down to city level. If applicable? Don't live in the US so...
-
My title structure is properly in place. I just want to make sure there's nothing additional I can do since we are addressing URL Keywords today.
-
I'd put more effort in constructing the perfect title tag than the perfect url's. What you are talking about isn't really structure, it is more like: what to put in the url's.
Simply use the first url you mentioned. And in the title mention Florida Contractor license bond.
So the FL will not make any difference. Just make sure you mention it in your title and on-page of course, because that will help!
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
-
Should I use an acronym in my URL?
I know that Google understands various acronyms. Example: If I search for CRM System, it knows i'm searching for a customer relationship management system. However, will it recognize less known acronyms? I have a page geared specifically for SAP data archiving for human capital management systems. For those in the industry, they simply call it HCM. Here is how I view my options: Option #1: www.mywebsite.com/sap-data-archiving/human-capital-management Option #2: www.mywebsite.com/sap-data-archiving/hcm Option #3: www.mywebsite.com/sap-data-archiving/hcm-human-capital-management With option #3, i'm capturing the acronym AND the full phrase. This doesn't make my URL overly long either. Of course, in my content i'll reference both. What does everyone else think about the URL? -Alex
On-Page Optimization | | MeasureEverything0 -
Best category page structure on MY ecommerce site? Advice please
Hi all, I run the site: http://goo.gl/YATL2i I have had this category set up like this for a while now - but wonder if its confusing to google, and potentially my users... let me start by saying my products are available in 3 formats (soon to be 4), so for example i have 3 pages for cctv systems: Analogue / SD cctv systems: http://goo.gl/SPkdYW hd sdi systems: http://goo.gl/uksRAD ip systems: http://goo.gl/UMHBd0 each of the above sub categories then have a further sub category of 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 or 16 camera kit page... I am trying to figure out if it would be better to just have one "cctv systems" page, and use filters in the left menu so users can filter by format, number of cameras etc etc... but these filters would not navigate to other pages but simply limit the view on the one "cctv systems" page. If you think 1 page with filters is best - can you then advise what should i do with all the sub category pages i no longer need? 301 rediret to the main cctv systems page? Basically i currently have my site set up so cctv products are categorised by the format i,e SD, HD-SDI or IP... Which i thought was very important the user doesnt mix formats as it can not work - but am thinking maybe i should catorgorize by type i.e CCTV Camera, CCTV Recorders or CCTV Systems, and then use filters to drill further down in the categories. Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated. thanks
On-Page Optimization | | isntworkdull0 -
301 Redirects From a URL without Keyphrases to one With Keyphrases
I have a client that sells services. Each service offered currently has a URL structure like this: www.companyname.com/product/asp$view-id-page3022-item-24 These pages are pretty old, and I would love to have a more user-friendly URL like this: www.companyname.com/product/purple-swatch-watch If I rename the URL and do a 301 redirect, what impact will that have on search? Ideally, this page will be optimized for "purple swatch watch", but the current URL structure is so... well, you know. My apologies if this has been answered before. I tried looking through archived of 301 issues, but lost hope after my first 10 or so attempts at answered didn't help this specific issue.
On-Page Optimization | | ericav0 -
"On Page" report says 2 rel canonical urls-how do I fix that?
I am reviewing my On Page scores and I'm not getting a perfect score bk of this notice: No More Than One Canonical URL Tag Moderate fix <dl> <dt>Number of Canonical tags</dt> <dd>2</dd> <dt>Explanation</dt> <dd>The canonical URL tag is meant to be employed only a single time on an individual URL (much like the title element or meta description). To ensure the search engines properly parse the canonical source, employ only a single version of this tag.</dd> <dt>Recommendation</dt> <dd>Remove all but a single canonical URL tag</dd> <dd>HOW do I fix that?</dd> <dd>I am using Platinum seo plugin which I have checked "Use canonical urls" and the page in question is</dd> <dd>http://adderalldosage.net/general-adderall-dosage/</dd> </dl>
On-Page Optimization | | ccare7230 -
Keyword in URL
Hi everyone, I've heard many times that keyword prominence in url have a good impact for on-page optimization, even in SEOmoz it is one of the on-page factors. But what if i put keyword in URL then some of the page weight will be targeted to the page in the URL. Which in my vision makes only a negative impact. For ex. Targeted page <a>with keyword "buy car in NY" has a link with anchor text "buy car in NY" pointing on page **, so some weight from A will be transferred to B. Also I think this subject cover a cross linking, so I would like to know, what is the right way of doing cross linking and does it still brings any impact on keyword rankings in SERP.**</a> <a>**Good answer will be appreciated. Cheers, Russel**</a>
On-Page Optimization | | smokin_ace0 -
Complex navigation structure leaving me puzzled with Meta keywords! Would love some help...
Hi there So I have a main navigation, It includes 5 categories Each category contains 4-6 sub categories Within these sub categories, there are 6 - 10 sub sub categories Its a rather complex navigation but allows the end user to land exactly where they want without much mooching. Now my issue is the use of keywords. Should I be feeding the keywords used in the main category through to the sub category and the sub sub category as they are all linked or should I use unique keywords for each sub/sub/sub category? I have added an image of the nav layout so you can see how it works. I hope that makes sense? Could love some help! dHve8.jpg
On-Page Optimization | | onlineforequine0 -
Tool for Generating Sitemap/ URL List
HI, I'm looking for a tool that'll generate a URL list for a site. I looked at this thread here http://www.seomoz.org/q/online-sitemap-generator which came up when I searched for sitemap generator. However, I don't need a sitemap per se, and I don't need to submit it to Google - just a list of pages is what I need.If it updated automatically, that would be useful as well. Anyone know of a tool, on or offline? Or anyone used Xenu and know if it's what I'm looking for? Or is there a simple solution that I'm missing? Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | 5225Marketing0 -
Keywords in URL:
what kind of URL should we use? www.keyword.net/keyword-city or www.keyword.net/city which URL you would prefer?
On-Page Optimization | | alibeef0