Site structure suggestions/feedback
-
I asked this on Reddit and got some some decent answers. I'm curious to see what the pro's of SEOmoz think.
I've got a lead generation site for forklift parts--liftxparts.com. You can think of it similar to car parts, where we have sections for specific brands (e.x. Toyota forklift parts) and sections for specific categories (e.x. forklift filters).
Right now, the site is structured in two main levels: the top level is a dozen or so brands (separate pages for Toyota forklift parts, Clark forklift parts, etc), and then the second level is the categories (separate pages for a dozen or so different categories like forklift filters, forklift engine parts, etc.).If you check out one of the pages, like Clark forklift parts for example (our top landing page)--liftxparts.com/clark-forklift-parts.html, you'll see that on the brand pages (they're all structured the same), we list all the different categories (with links to the same second level category pages) and "search" buttons. All pages point to the same lead capture form.This has been working pretty well--about 90% of visitors end up on our lead capture form, and a high percentage of those convert.
We're working on increasing organic traffic now and I'm thinking our structure could use some improvement.Looking at the analytics, there are a lot more impressions for keywords like "clark forklift" than "clark forklift parts". One gap I've uncovered is while our average position, and by extension CTR and traffic, for phrases like "clark forklift parts" is quite good, it's not so good for broader and higher searched terms like "clark forklift". Should we add another level of hierarchy targeted to just general brands? So now we have content for clark forklift parts, but should we add a page for terms like "clark forklift"? Or should we just add some broader content to the existing brand pages? The pages are quite long already, I'm afraid adding more content to the bottom of the page isn't very functional.
Our thinking is that we can increase average position for higher searched terms by adding content targeted to those terms. The question is how exactly to go about it and how to work it into our current site structure?
Any feedback related to our site structure or even just related ideas about other ways to approach our goal of increasing organic traffic would be very much appreciated! Thanks!
-
Yes Wisam, I would expand that list of specific keywords. Do you monitor your on-site search? Do you look at your keywords in Adwords (if you are doing PPC) for the keywords that actually trigger your ads (versus terms that you are bidding on)? Both of those places are great places to get ideas for keywords permutations you may haven't yet considered.
In addition to the larger e-commerce site that I do in-house SEO I also do SEO for a very tight niche site. It is a product line with which I am extremely familiar. For that site alone Itrack about 250 keywords in SEOMoz...so by all means, yes, expand your targeted keyword list and track them all. I can guarantee you'll find some gems that you've probably never considered.
Also, here's another way to find "high opportunity" keywords. Use Avinash Kaushik's custom reports for tracking keywords based on length of keywords string. You can find more about that here http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/best-downloadable-custom-web-analytics-reports/
Pay attention especially to the performance of long tail versus short tail keywords. Here's a link to a blog post that will, I hope, not only blow your mind, but change your life! Okay a little extreme I know, but my God Avinash Kaushik isuch a freaking genius!
-
Hi Dana,
Thanks for your quick reply.
I see your point about making sure you have the right goal in mind in targeting broad keywords. A quick search of "clark forklifts" does speak to what you hinted at--virtually all of the first page of the SERPs is dedicated to actual equipment and not parts.
I guess the logic was, we're currently getting a nice chunk of traffic from that keyword (and many others like it), and since over 90% of visitors end up on our "search form", you have to assume that a good amount of traffic coming from those broad keywords is ending up on the search form (although, as I'm typing this, I guess I could just check GA instead of assuming haha) and so if we can increase average position for those words, we can increase CTR, which will increase traffic, and, finally, increase conversions.
If targeting broader keywords maybe isn't the best strategy for increasing organic traffic, should we be expanding our list of relavent keywords and target stuff that we're not currently ranking for, or increasing position for words we are currently ranking for? For the relavent keywords we are doing well with now, virtually all of them are in the top 3, it doesn't seem like we can squeeze more traffic out of those existing relavent keywords (again as I'm typing this, maybe the increase from around 5% of traffic in third position to around 18% in first position, multiplied across many of our existing keywords does add up?). How many of those targeted and tight keywords is reasonable for us to try and target? Right now, we're only tracking about 30.
Thanks!
Wisam
-
hi,
There are many ways to organize pages on a site. Unfortunately, some common techniques of organizing information can also harm your SEO strategy.
Sites organized by a hierarchy determined without reference to SEO might not be ideal because the site architecture is unlikely to emphasize links to information a searcher finds most relevant. An example would be burying high-value keyword pages deep within a sites structure, as opposed to hear the top, simply because those pages don't fit easily within a "home", "about us", contact" hierarchy.
Please check these for better understanding about site structure
The Pillars Of Strategic SEO & A Primer On Website Design
Intelligent Site Structure for better SEO
Getting Site Architecture Right
Good luck
-
Hi RealW,
Well, as an in-house SEO I am very familiar with this scenario. I might have more questions (meant to be provocative) for you than answers. I guess we'll call it "the Socratic method of SEO"
Okay, so here we go:
Why do you want to target the term "clark forklift?" Do you sell Clark forklifts, or just Clark forklift parts?
If you don't sell Clark forklifts, and that's what people are looking to shop for, what are they going to find at your site that gives them what they searched for?
Are you just plain after more traffic (and not necessarily conversions)?"
When you are targeting keywords for your SEO, you have to (I stress HAVE to) check your ego at the door. This isn't necessarily hard for SEOs but it can be next to impossible for business owners and CEOs who feel like they should rank for every keyword under the sun.
Here's an example straight from my work today. I got a message from the CEO (I am the in-house SEO) stating his dissatisfaction that we weren't ranking for this term: "mackie th-12a/" I researched the term and discovered that nearly every competitor outranking us had higher page authority, domain authority, more links and a more recent cache date. Not only that but the niche the product seems to appeal to is the DJ market, while we primarily sell to churches. I sent him all the data comparing domains, together with my evaluation that it was the wrong niche and said point blank "we don't rank for this term because we aren't very relevant for this term."
Given that your current site structure and keyword choices are converting well, I wouldn't mess with that. If you go broader at terms that you aren't particularly relevant for then all you are doing is getting traffic, throwing it at the wall and hoping something sticks. That takes a heck of a lot of work and effort for precious little return.
Make a list of productive, relevant keywords and stick to them like glue. If you find you can't make a business out of that because the niche you created was to tight, then you need to broaden your business model before you broaden your keyword list. Going at it the other way around is...well "===" backwards.
Just my two cents! I wish you good luck and hope something here helps!
Dana
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
-
Question on site structure
My client is a nationwide company. They provide building maintenance services in 7 different cities. In each city they provide a different range of services. They currently have a single service page for each service and no mention on that page of the cities they offer the service. The service pages are getting no SERP visibility. We are running Paid Search and recommending SEO. I'm wondering whether it would be beneficial to build out specific service pages for each city so the content is more relevant to both users and search engines. What is best practice in this situation? Client wants to dominate SERPs in each market for the services they offer.
On-Page Optimization | | SEOinSunnyNelson0 -
Structural data is not showing SERP
Hi, I need your help please check i am trying to display site structural data but not showing in SERP after doing efforts, please tell me if i am missing something: https://kfoods.com/special_chicken_karahi_rid469
On-Page Optimization | | abrarpasha0 -
How do I reduce the amount of internal links on my site?
Hi, Can someone help me with reducing the amount of internal links on our site please? https://www.thepresentfinder.co.uk Thanks Charlie
On-Page Optimization | | The-Present-Finder0 -
SEO before products on ecommerce site
Our company plans to quickly launch an e-commerce site to sell religion themed banners (religionbanners.com). We'll have our products up on the site in about a week. Should I block Google from accessing the site during this period? Is there anything wrong with starting simple SEO tasks such as submitting the site map on Google Search Console prior to us having the products on the site?
On-Page Optimization | | art_litho0 -
Tips for Getting a Very Small Site to Rank
I am working on a very small (two page) site for a client, and trying to rank for some very competitive local terms. The site is www.arlingtonbuilders.com, and our terms center around local cities (like Arlington) plus "custom homes," "custom renovations," etc. I feel very limited in terms of what I can do on the site, and I'm building citations offsite, but I feel stuck. I'd love some tips for helping them rank better without building out an entire site.
On-Page Optimization | | ScottImageWorks3 -
I'm planning the structure of a Car Parts e-commerce site and...
Hi all, As the title says, I am redeveloping a website for a client who sells car parts. The market is saturated with competition and 9 times out of 10, www.eurocarparts.com appears within the top 5 SERPS when searching for the same things that my clients' website sells. Now I know it will be very difficult to compete with the likes of these sites but given time (plenty of time) you never know so I have dissected Euro Car Parts website for many hours to look at their internal link structure and so my question is related to this area. My site only sells car parts for 4 car manufacturers. The left hand "shop" navigation menu will list the categories in which the shop sells products for e.g: Air Filters
On-Page Optimization | | yousayjump
Break Pads
Coilovers
Dampers
Suspension etc. When you view one of those pages, there will be a form to allow the user to filter down to their particular make/model of car etc. Now when I search for "Air Filters" in Google, the results come back as nearly 40 million. If I prefix that search term with a car manufacturer name i.e. "Audi Air Filters" the number drops down to 8 million - quite a difference!
So my thinking was to do the following but I wanted to see if you guys think I am barking up the wrong tree or if this is a good approach: Create pages for my 4 car manufacturers for each "shop category" listing all the products I have in those categories for the manufacturer along with well written unique, relevant content, ie:- Audi Air Filters
Audi Break Pads
Audi Coilovers
Audi Suspension ... this would allow me to target the slightly long-tailed version of "Air Filters" as I now have a page for "Audi Air Filters". This would then mean when users click the "Air Filters" link from my left hand category menu, I would need to ensure that those pages were not indexed by the search engines as they would essentially be showing the same subset of products but with the title of the page being "Air Filters". I hope I have explained myself enough for you to understand my question. Ultimately I want to know if my approach is a typical one when knowing that even attempting to target "air filters" with a new website is going to be a lost cause - I need to try and get some of the lower hanging fruit. Thank you for reading.0 -
Description tag/ duplicate content.
Quick question - will Gg deem it duplicate content if I use the description tag text anywhere else in the on-page copy? Thanks, David
On-Page Optimization | | newstd1000 -
Creating Duplicate Content on Shopping Sites
I have a client with an eCommerce site that is interested in adding their products to shopping sites. If we use the same information that is on the site currently, will we run into duplicate content issues when those same products & descriptions are published on shopping sites? Is it best practice to rewrite the product title and descriptions for shopping sites to avoid duplicate content issues?
On-Page Optimization | | mj7750