URL best practices, use folders or not ?
-
Hi
I have a question about URLs. Client have all URL written after domain and have only one / slash in all URLs. Is this best practice or i need to use categories,folders?
Thanks
-
It's a trade-off, for both SEO and users, and I don't think there's one answer that fits every situation. The category level can add information, but it also makes URLs longer, which can be bad for both bots and people. If you have short, descriptive categories that aren't repeated in the product/page names, and those categories mimic your site structure, then I think it can be positive.
My argument was mostly against people adding categories just for SEO benefit (it's probably minimal, at best) or repeating every category, sub-category, etc. to the point of absurdity, causing keyword cannibalization and massive URLs. For example:
www.bobscamerashop.com/cameras/digital-cameras/canon-cameras/eos-cameras/camera-canon-eos-rebel-t3
Of course, that's also keyword stuffed, but I'm exaggerating to prove a point. You can go too far in either direction.
In general, though, I don't think categories in the URL are necessarily bad. In some cases, as Woj said, they could be a positive for users and possible even SEO.
-
Think about it from the user's point of view. What would work best for them? Maybe even get some feedback from some site users if possible
-
Will the site categories/products grow? If so, then the slash could be used to organise the structure & prepare for the future
In the example, you presented:
- www.example.com/accounts-titanium
- www.example.com**/**accounts/titanium
These are the same length & make no real difference
When we compare these 2, however:
You can see that #1 is shorter, doesn't repeat keyword (even though they are plural) & would be more likely clicked in the SERPs
Does that help some more?
-
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/should-i-change-my-urls-for-seo
In this article point 2 is saying that the unstructured is better
so i`m confused.
-
the site is small about 60 pages and max depth level is 3
-
I'd use folders or categories if the amount of products/items is large and/or going to expand
If it's a small amount & finite then make the URLs as short as possible
-
Information architecture is important from a usability and search engine prospective.
I'd say go for the categories divided by the /
www.example.com**/**accounts/titanium
www.example.com/accounts/open-demo-accountThis makes more sense and lends itself to scalability etc.
hope this helps.
there are some really good articles on information architecture on the seomoz and the web
-
URL is without any category or folder
www.example.com/accounts-titanium
www.example.com/open-demo-account
is this right or i need to use:
www.example.com**/**accounts/titanium
-
not quite sure what you mean exactly - can you expand with and example?
Thanks
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
-
To avoid the duplicate content issue I have created new urls for that specific site I am posting to and redirecting that url to the original on my site. Is this the right way to do it?
I am trying to avoid the duplicate content issue by creating new urls and redirecting them to the original url. Is this the proper way of going about it?
On-Page Optimization | | yagobi210 -
Using phrases like 'NO 1' or 'Best' int he title tag
Hi All, Quick question - is it illegal, against any rule etc to use phrases such as 'The No 1 rest of the title tag | Brand Name' on a site?
On-Page Optimization | | Webrevolve0 -
URL Length
I know a URL should "technically" shorter than 75 characters. Does that include the http://www.domainname.com ? Thank you 🙂
On-Page Optimization | | Libra0130 -
Best practice for introducing new landing page to my site?
I have a client, and want to know the best way to add new, keyword specific landing pages to their site and link to it in a logical way that isn't spammy. Example: My homepage targets “Adelaide Cars” I also want to target “Melbourne Cars” which I would do via a targeted landing page. How then would I logically link to this landing page? As Google gets better at spotting un-natural content, I’d like to know how to introduce this new page to get the best traction. If I was to just create the page, it would not make sense to have it in the main navigation. Same goes from various industry type terms. Eg. pest control and exterminator. How do you target both and still have a logical sitemap and page structure that Google will like and make sense to users.
On-Page Optimization | | letgo3450 -
URL extensions naming
I have always wrote URL extensions as www.mysite.com/two_words.html .... when I need to separate two words, I use _ as the separator ... I am a first time SEO Moz user ... I While looking around the tools on SEO Moz, I happened to stumble across the on-page analysis. A great tool indeed, rather worryingly though, one issue it flagged to me was my URL extension "Characters which are less commonly used in URLs may cause problems with accessibility, interpretation and ranking in search engines. It is considered a best practice to stick to standard URL structures to avoid potential problems." Can someone advice me if this really is a problem, its just not this project, its tons of sites I have already developed that I am also worried about ... I always write file extensions with more than one word using _ to separate the words. How should I write the extension, I am almost embarrassed to ask this question ... Surely, even Google's algorithms are not smart enough to decipher two words without some some sort of spacing .... Regards J
On-Page Optimization | | Johnny4B0 -
URL Strucutre
Hi there, Need some advice please on URL structure. I have been doing SEO for quite sometime now, however one thing that always get me is URL structure. I have a decision to make, its either: URL 1 /conditions/allergies/food/ URL 2 /conditions/allergies-food/ Lets say i am optimizing for the key-phase "Food Allergies" what do you think is best practice? I know that this is not a major factor in gaining high SERPs & maybe i'm thinking about it too much, however your input would be really helpful. Kind Regards,
On-Page Optimization | | Paul780 -
Are xml sitemaps still in use today?
Hi, Are you still using XML sitemaps today? If yes, does it bring any benefit to your website like faster indexing of webpages or better rankings? Are you using special features like video sitemaps or sitemap index files? Best regards, Tobias
On-Page Optimization | | Tobiask-1215731 -
Best SEO structure for blog
What is the best SEO page/link structure for a blog with, say 100 posts that grows at a rate of 4 per month? Each post is 500+ words with charts/graphics; they're not simple one paragraph postings. Rather than use a CMS I have a hand crafted HTML/CSS blog (for tighter integration with the parent site, some dynamic data effects, and in general to have total control). I have a sidebar with headlines from all prior posts, and my blog home page is a 1 line summary of each article. I feel that after 100 articles the sidebar and home page have too many links on them. What is the optimal way to split them up? They are all covering the same niche topic that my site is about. I thought of making the side bar and home page only have the most recent 25 postings, and then create an archive directory for older posts. But categorizing by time doesn't really help someone looking for a specific topic. I could tag each entry with 2-3 keywords and then make the sidebar a sorted list of tags. Clicking on a tag would then show an intermediate index of all articles that have that tag, and then you could click on an article title to read the whole article. Or is there some other strategy that is optimal for SEO and the indexing robots? Is it bad to have a blog that is too heirarchical (where articles are 3 levels down from the root domain) or too flat (if there are 100s of entries)? Thanks for any thoughts or pointers.
On-Page Optimization | | scanlin0