URL structure
-
Hi,
I am in the process of having a site created which will focus on the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and PS3 Vita.
I would appreciate some advice when it comes to the URL structure. Each category mentioned above will have the following subsections
News
Reviews
Screenshots
TrailersWould the best url structure be?
www.domain.com/xbox-360/news/news-story-headline
www.domain.com/ps3/reviews/ps3-game-nameThanks in advance for your help and suggestions.
-
The timestamp is totally up to you if you think your URL:s will look better without them.
However Google tends to give pages with clear indications of when the information was published a little boosts. And they do mention that freshness is key for content.
So the timestamp is important but I'm guessing that you'll have a timestamp in the article with the standard WP config anyhow so it's really not that essential in the URL. But If you have many articles it can be good to have a time indicator in them, if only for your own use.
To give yo a better example of how the permalink settings could look in WP:
/%category%/%postname%/
If you do it this way you won't have a timestamp in the URL.
* Remember that WP will use only one category in the permalinks so I reccomend you to only have one category for the URL.
Both way works, just choose one and remember that you need to stick to the one you choose so that the inbound links don't loose effect.
best, G
-
Thanks Gustav. Do I really need the timestamp? (However I am looking to get listed on Google News in the future)
I was thinking of the following structure:-
ps3/ps3-reviews/game-name-review
xbox-360/xbox-360-reviews/game-name-review -
That's correct
- otherwise it would be seen as duplicated content.
But that doesn't create any problems for you.
Just set the structure to:
Maincategory/subcategory/nichecategory/timestamp/article
EG:
For Xbox:
Reviews/xbox-360/timestamp/game-review-name
FOr PS3:
Reviews/Ps3/timestamp/game-review-name
This should work fine
Best, G
-
Thanks for the kind words, both.
It appears that with Wordpress each category (even sub categories) cannot have the same name so for example, "reviews" can only be used once and cannot be used within /xbox-360/reviews/game-review-name and ps3/reviews/game-review-name
Is that correct?
-
Great thoughts, but I would just like to add another: you may want to keep all subfolders in lowercase. This could prevent headaches later on if URL characters have a mixture of cases.
-
Nice thread!
As Marcus mentioned, it's good to have cross platform category, there is however another way
You could:
Instead of using cross platform as a category, simply use rel canonical.
In WP this is simple you just choose the categories eg: Xbox360, PS3 and Wii and then choose which one that you want as a main indexed article with a rel canonical tag.
Best
Nice work on the site!
-
Yep, I guess, but to play devils advocate here, what if it is a cross platform review?
You could review on one platform, make that the main one and then have the same content on other URLS that have a canonical pointing to the main review.
Alternatively, you could have another category
/cp/ - cross platform
Then you could have:
www.totallygn.com/cp/reviews/fifa12-review
And the review could be listed under all categories from a browsing perspective and just have a caveat that the version reviewed was for PS3.
Either way, this is not going to skyrocket your SEO, but your current URLs are a bit on the long side (standard wordpress set up?).
Just try to choose something that makes for a good, readable, descriptive URL that is not too long and you will be okay.
Oh, and make sure you 301 all the old page addresses else you will run into bigger problems. In fact, take a look at this plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirection/
It gives you loads of 301 options from within wordpress but more importantly, it creates automatic 301 redirects when a posts address changes so it will do most of the heavy lifting for you. It also logs all 404's so you can see any changes you didnt make and add the relevant rules.
You are doing a lot right though: Wordpress is a great base and your site has tons of great content so so keep at it!
Marcus
-
Thanks Marcus. The site currently exists at www.totallygn.com but is not very SEO friendly as you can see.
With regards to what you said above. If we were to review FIFA 12 for the PS3 would your url be
www.totallygn.com/ps3/reviews/fifa12-review ?
Thanks again,
Neil
-
Hey, sounds interesting, I am a UK gamer so you will have to let me have a link!
Really, this should be a common sense, usability driven decision so the way you have listed it above seems to work for me.
The main categories are the consoles themselves so
/xbox/
/ps3/
/wii/
/vita/These then all break down into your four categories so
/xbox/News
/xbox/Reviews
/xbox/Screenshots
/xbox/Trailers/ps3/News
/ps3/Reviews
/ps3/Screenshots
/ps3/TrailersThis gives you plenty of flexibility to add new root categories, children categories etc and it gets your keywords in your URL if that is your SEO goal here. Ultimately, it makes for a nice, descriptive URL as well.
Good luck with the site!
Marcus
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
-
blog url structure change affect on pagerank
We are looking to change our blog structure which will help us with the organization of the topics but the url structure will change if we do this. Right now all of the blogs are under a general news blog, which we will be breaking out articles into several blog category topics Current:
Technical SEO | | theblueprints
example of current structure
current site: https://domain/blogs/news/blog article name Proposed Change:
current site: https://domain/blogs/keyword-name-of-blog-category/blog article name We have ranked #1 for several keywords that we would like to preserve the ranking if we make this switch with 301 redirects. Looking for suggestion on the percentage of chance our ranking will be negatively affected and by how much? Also what everyones recommendation is if we should make this switch or not touch the urls. Your help is appreciated, thanks in advance.0 -
How do I customize Magento product urls?
I would like my product urls to be /category/manufacturer/name/part#. This would be the only url the item uses and how the product is accessed. It would also be used for product feeds. My first attempt was to use https://amasty.com/magento-unique-product-url.html This creates a single url but I can not customize it. Sometimes it selects the manufacturer and sometimes the category. My second attempt was with https://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/custom-product-urls-seo.html I have it installed but it doesn't change the urls. Has anyone been able to do this successfully?
Technical SEO | | Tylerj0 -
How do I deindex url parameters
Google indexed a bunch of our URL parameters. I'm worried about duplicate content. I used the URL parameter tool in webmaster to set it so future parameters don't get indexed. What can I do to remove the ones that have already been indexed? For example, Site.com/products and site.com/products?campaign=email have both been indexed as separate pages even though they are the same page. If I use a no index I'm worried about de indexing the product page. What can I do to just deindexed the URL parameter version? Thank you!
Technical SEO | | BT20090 -
Webmaster tools...URL Errors
Hi mozzers, Quick question. Whats the best thing to do about URL errors in webmaster tools. They are all 404s that point from external sites. Many of them are junk spam sites. Should I mark them as "fixed" or just leave them. I'm hoping google is aware it's out of my control if spam sites want to link to 404s on my site. Peter
Technical SEO | | PeterM220 -
How to keep a URL social equity during a URL structure/name change?
We are in the process of making significant URL name/structure change to one of our property and we want to keep the social equity (likes, share, +1, tweets) from the old to the new URL. We have been trying many different option without success. We are running our social "button" in an iframe. Thanks
Technical SEO | | OlivierChateau0 -
Do trailing / in URLs matter?
I was wondering if search engines see duplicate content on two different URLs if the content is available via www.xyz.com/services or www.xyz,com/services/
Technical SEO | | TheOceanAgency0 -
How do I fix these duplicate URLs?
HI guys, I ran a report on my site and it shows some duplicate titles (example below). Do I need to add something to the htaccess file or another file to fix this? I understand that the search engines should only see 1 URL for the page. 2 pages have "Bikes for sale | used bikes | second hand bicycles" title pauslwebsite.com/bikes/ paulswebsite.com/bikes/index.asp Thanks
Technical SEO | | paulmund0 -
Blank Canonical URL
So my devs have the canonical URL loaded up on pages automatically, and in most cases this gets done correctly. However we ran across a bug that left some of these blank like so: Does anyone know what effect that would have? I am trying to provide a priority for this so I can say "FIX IT NOW" or "Fix it after the other 'FIX IT NOW' type of items". Let me know if you have any ideas. I just want to be sure I am not telling google that all of these pages are like the home page. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | SL_SEM0