Product Category Subcategory hierarchy
-
Hi all,
I am developing an ecommerce store and would like some advice on the Category / Product URL structure for SEO purposes.
- Products have many options
- Products belong to a sub-category.
- Sub categories belong to a category
There will be a maximum of 500 products in the database.
1. http://shop.com/{category}/{product_slug}?{product_option} Flattened with query string option
2. http://shop.com/{category}/{subcategory}/{product_slug}?{product_option} // Hierarchical with query string option
3. http://shop.com/{category}/{product_slug}/{product_option}
4. http://shop.com/{category}/{subcategory}/{product_slug}/{product_option}
Option 5 seems best to me, however I am also worried about duplicate content between pages.
- http://shop.com/apple/iphone-5s-32gb-black
- http://shop.com/apple/iphone-5s-64gb-black
- http://shop.com/apple/iphone-5s-64gb-white
The above 3 examples will all have very similar content. And if I use canonical url tag, which product page would I refer these pages to?
At least with Option 1 I can use the canonical tag to tell search engines that pages with get parameters can point to the non get parameter version.
In addition to Option 5, should I create a http://shop.com/{category}/{subcategory} page? That way Option 5 item canonical tags can point to that page. e.g. http://shop.com/apple/iphone-5s which would contain product summary detail with product options listed on the page?
Am I missing something here or can anybody provide a better solution?
-
I typically keep category names out of the product URL. It creates problems, especially when the product lives in multiple categories. You can use a rel canonical tag, but I'd rather just not have to deal with it. Here is how I do it:
www.domain.com/products/product-name/
www.domain.com/category/category-name/ and
www.domain.com/category/category-name/sub-category-name/This convention has several advantages, including easy segmentation of the site to determine, for instance, how many product pages are indexed in the SERPs.
One could argue that having the category name in the product URL is good for SEO because of the keywords, but I would argue that putting the product farther down in the site structure, and the non-canonical URL issues related to certain taxonomies (e.g. multiple categories for a product) negates what little benefit keywords in the URL have these days.
Of course not all eCommerce platforms really allow the structure above. Magento, for example, will allow you to put products in the root, but not in the /product/ folder. The product will also be viewable on the category-version of the URLs, but they will have a rel canonical tag pointing to the root directory version.
Good luck.
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
-
Same subcategory in different main categories
Hi all, A fairly common problem in webshops is having the same subcategory in multiple main categories. Let's take the following example: example.com/legal/economic-law/company-law example.com/tax/companies/company-law I came across this interesting article on this topic: https://moz.com/community/q/e-commerce-site-one-product-multiple-categories-best-practice Although I understand that the answer on the above question is the most thorough method, I don't see a problem with just using canonicals either. On the webshop we are restructuring, there are only a few of these subcategories that return in multiple main categories, so generating a path via user activity and storing it in a cookie doens't seem really necessary to me. Is it ok to just use canonicals or can this cause issues? Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Mat_C2 -
Product page as homepage
Hello, Is it ok that to use the homepage of website as a product page directly where you present all your products on your homepage or can it penalise you to do that ? and in that case, is it better to have a homepage that you don't rank and create a subpage for your product page. Thank you,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics1 -
Ecommerce: A product in multiple categories with a canonical to create a ‘cluster’ in one primary category Vs. a single listing at root level with dynamic breadcrumb.
OK – bear with me on this… I am working on some pretty large ecommerce websites (50,000 + products) where it is appropriate for some individual products to be placed within multiple categories / sub-categories. For example, a Red Polo T-shirt could be placed within: Men’s > T-shirts >
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AbsoluteDesign
Men’s > T-shirts > Red T-shirts
Men’s > T-shirts > Polo T-shirts
Men’s > Sale > T-shirts
Etc. We’re getting great organic results for our general T-shirt page (for example) by clustering creative content within its structure – Top 10 tips on wearing a t-shirt (obviously not, but you get the idea). My instinct tells me to replicate this with products too. So, of all the location mentioned above, make sure all polo shirts (no matter what colour) have a canonical set within Men’s > T-shirts > Polo T-shirts. The presumption is that this will help build the authority of the Polo T-shirts page – this obviously presumes “Polo Shirts” get more search volume than “Red T-shirts”. My presumption why this is the best option is because it is very difficult to manage, particularly with a large inventory. And, from experience, taking the time and being meticulous when it comes to SEO is the only way to achieve success. From an administration point of view, it is a lot easier to have all product URLs at the root level and develop a dynamic breadcrumb trail – so all roads can lead to that one instance of the product. There's No need for canonicals; no need for ecommerce managers to remember which primary category to assign product types to; keeping everything at root level also means there no reason to worry about redirects if product move from sub-category to sub-category etc. What do you think is the best approach? Do 1000s of canonicals and redirect look ‘messy’ to a search engine overtime? Any thoughts and insights greatly received.0 -
Duplicate Content Dilemma for Category and Brand Pages
Hi, I have a online shop with categories such as: Trousers Shirts Shoes etc. But now I'm having a problem with further development.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | soralsokal
I'd like to introduce brand pages. In this case I would create new categories for Brand 1, Brand 2, etc... The text on categories and brand pages would be unique. But there will be an overlap in products. How do I deal with this from a duplicate content perspective? I'm appreciate your suggestions. Best, Robin0 -
Redirect issue launching duplicate product categories on another TLD
Dear Mozzerz We run this e-commerce website (superstar.dk) where we are selling all different kinds of wristwatches from different brand names (Casio, Garmin, Suunto etc). We just bought another website selling watches (xxx.com) and therefore we would like to move some of the content from superstar.dk to the new website xxx.com, making superstar.dk into a more niche website. So we are basically taking a brand with all the products in it and shutting it down on superstar.dk and instead launching it on xxx.com. Superstar.dk will still be running, just with a more niche product- and brand selection. So my question is, should we redirect all the old product categories that we are shutting down to the new website on another TLD where we are opening them again and the same for the products (e.g. superstar.dk/garmin -> xxx.com/garmin)? Or would it be better to keep the redirects within the same website/TLD (e.g. superstar.dk/garmin -> superstar.dk)? A few examples:
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | superstardenmark
superstar.dk/garmin -> xxx.com/garmin
superstar.dk/suunto -> xxx.com/suunto
etc..
superstar.dk/product1 -> xxx.com/product1
superstar.dk/product2 -> xxx.com/product2
etc.0 -
Linking across categories
On a website when I link across in the same category should all the categories all pear on each page. Let's say I have 6 categories and 6 pages should I have the 6 links on all the pages ( such as A, B, C, D, E, on page 1 ( let's imagine this page is page F ), then on page A have link B, C D, E, F and so on for the 6 pages ( meaning all the links appear on all the pages across the category ) or should i just have let's say 3 links on page 1 ( link A, B, C ) , then link ( D, E, F ) on page 2, then A, E, F on page 3, link B, C F on page 4 and so on... ( which means that i vary the links that appear and that it is naturally ( at least I think ) going to boost the link that appears the most of the 6 pages ? I hope this is not too confusing, Thank you,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
Is there a negative effect to show categories and products on the same page?
I mean having say 5 different categories on a page and showing the products that are in those categories below the categories. Just In case people don't want to dig deeper to find there product because they know what they need already. I would also want those categories for the people that need to do a little more searching and have a better reference guide. So is there any negatives to my SEO doing it that way?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Mike.Bean0 -
SEO - Product Related MiniSites: Hosting & Domains
Hey Mozzers, I would first like to thank everyone in advance for replying to my question 😉 Actually, my question is 2-part: Hosting & Domains 1) We are currently researching product-related domains and would like to build-out review style mini-sites on WordPress that link back to our main site product pages. We're using X-Cart platform and X-Cart offers a WordPress module. My Dev. recommends installing a main WordPress mini-site template on my server and replicating this template under different domains/unique content, obviously ;-). -My questions is; For backlink purposes, would it be better to host these WordPress pages in a different location/server? 2) Domains (which domain extensions are the best): I have read mixed reviews on this subject ... a) Do dashes (i,e. brand-model.com) have an impact as well?? I read a post regarding this; http://www.commonsensemarketing.net/do-domain-name-extensions-matter/ - and the general feeling was that .com and .net ranked higher, faster but that .info wasn't a bad runner up. I was a bit excited to hear that .info wasn't a bad choice as they are actually "available" and cheap as well (under 3 bucks) until a comment was posted about a "Market Samurai" study. They reported testing 4 domain names (below) with the same article, date & time post . 1. domainname.com
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | k9byron
2. domainname.org
3. domainname.net
4. domain-name.com -My question is: Can anyone give any advise on which domain extensions work better/rank higher faster? com / .net / .org / .info / ect? Also, is it better to have more product related keywords in the domain? Example, one of my products is the "Dogtra 280ncp Platinum". WordStream exact match tells me that "dogtra 280ncp" gets 210 searches per month and that "dogtra 280ncp platinum" gets another 91 searches per month. I'm guessing that its better to buy www.Dogtra280ncpPlatinum.com instead of www.Dogtra280ncp.com as we would pick up the searches for the "platinum" term as well? Question Summary: Is it better to host these mini-sites on another server than my main site? Which domain extensions work better? Is it better to use as many product related keywords in the domain as possible and maybe even throw modifiers in there as well such as "buy" or "review"? Thanks Again!
Byron-0