Product URL Optimisation
-
Hi guys,
We are currently trying to add new products to our site but we are in a quandary on what type of URL structure to pursue.
For example:
Product Name: Aspect Exfoliating Cleanser 240mlhttps://www.example.com.au/aspect-exfoliating-cleanser-240ml (including the size)
VS
https://www.example.com.au/aspect-exfoliating-cleanser1.) Which is a better URL structure based on SEO 2018 and why?
2.) Is there any merit in removing the size from the URL key with the aim of attracting more traffic?Keen to hear from you guys!
Cheers,
-
Hi Michel
I work with eCommerce sites so have a lot of experience in colour and size split pages.
If the exfoliating cream comes in only one size you would be better having the first option. Write a really strong product description 150 words plus along with technical details.
If the cream comes in various sizes then have them as a drop-down variant on the page. So you would have a single product with a strong product description and then a drop down box so that the user could choose the size of tube/bottle they needed.
The reason is that if you don't do this you will end up duplicating the product descriptions. So say you have 3 sizes then the URLs would conceivably be like this:
https://www.example.com.au/aspect-exfoliating-cleanser-240ml
https://www.example.com.au/aspect-exfoliating-cleanser-360ml
https://www.example.com.au/aspect-exfoliating-cleanser-480mlThis would mean that all three would share the same product description and the only thing separating them would be the size. This is bad for SEO as Google doesn't rank pages with duplicate content well. In fact, it could end up that none of them ranks in the top 5 pages.
Keep it simple - one product - size drop down.
Successful stores do it this way.
I hope that helps
Regards Nigel
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
-
Ecommerce Migration - Criteria To Redirecting Products
Hi Guys, We have an e-commerce migration of a site moving from Magento to Shopify. The URL stuctures are changing so we will need redirects in place. They have over 50,000 skus/products. We need to setup redirect mapping - from old to new pages. Now setting up redirects for every single product seems overtop. Thus what is a good minimum requirement to determine if its worth redirecting a product page? We are thinking about going based on referring domains and google analytics data (for the last 12 months). If any product page has 1+ referring domain or more then 50 organic sessions during 12 months then setup a redirect otherwise no redirect required. Thoughts? Thankyou.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | brandonegroup0 -
Canonical URL & sitemap URL mismatch
Hi We're running a Magento store which doesn't have too much stock rotation. We've implemented a plugin that will allow us to give products custom canonical URLs (basically including the category slug, which is not possible through vanilla Magento). The sitemap feature doesn't pick up on these URLs, so we're submitting URLs to Google that are available and will serve content, but actually point to a longer URL via a canonical meta tag. The content is available at each URL and is near identical (all apart from the breadcrumbs) All instances of the page point to the same canonical URL We are using the longer URL in our internal architecture/link building to show this preference My questions are; Will this harm our visibility? Aside from editing the sitemap, are there any other signals we could give Google? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | tomcraig860 -
Should I use individual product pages for different formats of the same product?
Hi All -- I'm working with a publishing client who is launching a new site. They have a large product catalogue offered in a number of format types (print, ebook, online learning, packages) with each one possessing a unique ISBN code. From past experience, I know that ISBN codes can be a really important ranking factor. We are currently trying to sort out product page guidelines. The proposed methods are: A single product page for all formats. The user then has the option to select which format they wish to purchase. The page would contain all key descriptors for each format, including: individual ISBN, format, title, price, author, etc. We would then use schema mark-up just to assist search engines with understanding and crawling. BUT we worry that the single page won't rank as well as say an invidual product page with a unique ISBN in the URL (for example: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470573325.html) Which leads to the next option... Individual URLs for each format. We understand that most e-commerce guidelines state you shouldn't dilute link equity amongst multiple pages with very similar products and descriptions. BUT we want searchers to be able to search by individual ISBN and still find that specific format within the SERPs. This seems to rule out canonicalizing, because we don't prefer one format over the other and still want say the ebook to show up as much as the print version. If anyone has any other options or considerations that we haven't thought about, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, U
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | HarborOneBank0 -
Will Canonical tag on parameter URLs remove those URL's from Index, and preserve link juice?
My website has 43,000 pages indexed by Google. Almost all of these pages are URLs that have parameters in them, creating duplicate content. I have external links pointing to those URLs that have parameters in them. If I add the canonical tag to these parameter URLs, will that remove those pages from the Google index, or do I need to do something more to remove those pages from the index? Ex: www.website.com/boats/show/tuna-fishing/?TID=shkfsvdi_dc%ficol (has link pointing here)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | partnerf
www.website.com/boats/show/tuna-fishing/ (canonical URL) Thanks for your help. Rob0 -
What will the effect of normalising the case of my URLs be?
Hi all, I have a web site with a selection of pages with excellent rankings, mostly in the top 3 for the keywords we want to rank for. Currently, the URLs are mostly presented mixed case, like this: www.mydomain.com/Type/ITEM-IDENTIFIER/ However we have problems of different cases being used in different parts of our application, and also it's obviously not that attractive the way it is. What we are proposing to do is deploy a change to our web site that lowercases all URLs in internal links, as well as present the URLs in lowercase in our sitemap.xml, and provide any links to partners from this point on in lowercase format. We are also proposing to 301 redirect any non-lowercase URLs to the lowercase version. These pages already have a canonical link tag due to us hosting different versions of these pages on multiple domains, for skinning purposes. The link in the canonical link tag will also be changed to be lowercase. What I am concerned about is, URLs of the case above have been in the rankings for a few years now, and if all of a sudden our links are all lowercase, will they drop off the rankings? Or will the above measures mean that the pagerank is transferred to the lowercase version of the URL? Thanks in advance, James
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SeeTickets0 -
How do I optimise my products for best results?
Hi We have a number of products we want to optimise for example. Barbeque Boss Double Oven Glove, Black When performing keyword research, there are a number of generic terms such as, black oven gloves, barbeque boss and so on. Now i can write the page and optimise for these keyword phrases but I am not sure this is the right way about going for it, particularly if i have several products in the range that are "black oven gloves" or " double oven gloves" How so i best structure my meta tags, meta description and descriptions? Should i just use the product title and optimise around this in the hope Google displays our page in any search queries containing words in this product title? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Craig
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Towelsrus0 -
What Should I Do With My URL Names?
I release property on my blog each week, and it has come to the point we will get property in the same area as we have had in the past. So, I name my URL /blah-blah-blah-[area of property]/ for the first property in that area right. Now I get a different property in that same area and the URL will have to be named /blah-blah-blah-[area of property]-2/. Now I'm not sure if this is a major issue or not, but I'm sure there must be a better way than this, and I don't really want to take down our past properties - unless you can give me good reason too, of course? So before I start getting URLs like this: /blah-blah-blah-[area of property]-2334343534654/ (well, ok, maybe not that bad! But you get my point) I wanted to see what everyones opinion on it is 🙂 Thanks in advance!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JonathanRolande0 -
Category Pages up - Product Pages down... what would help?
Hi I mentioned yesterday how one of our sites was losing rank on product pages. What steps do you take to improve the SERPS of product pages, in this case home/category/product is the tree. There isn't really any internal linking, except one link from the category page to each product, would setting up a host of internal links perhaps "similar products" linking them together be a place to start? How can I improve my ranking of these more deeply internal pages? Not just internal links?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | xoffie0