Where is the point of diminishing returns for silos and keyword subdirectories?
-
And as a follow-up, is that point far enough out to justify making a site's folder structure different from its navigation structure?
I'll give an example. Say I was to do SEO for a hypothetical (I hope) someconstructioncompany.com, and the the menus/submenus were laid out as
- About Us
- ---- Our company
- ---- Our staff
- ---- Locations
- -------- Albany (default path would be .com/about-us/locations/albany-ny.html)
- -------- Miami
- -------- Liverpool
- Services
- ---- Kitchen remodeling (default path would be .com/services/kitchen-remodeling.html)
- ---- Above ground pools
- ---- Green building
- Photo galleries
- ---- Kitchen photos (default path would be .com/photo-gallery/kitchen-photos.html)
- ---- Pool photos
- ---- Green building photos
Would there be any benefit (and if so, enough of a benefit to outweigh the additional overhead of keeping track of a separate structure) to having the menus set that way, but the actual files siloed as stuff like
- someconstructioncompany.com/kitchen-remodeling/kitchen-renovation-services.html
- someconstructioncompany.com/kitchen-remodeling/custom-kitchen-photo-gallery.html
- someconstructioncompany.com/above-ground-pools/above-ground-pool-photos.html
- someconstructioncompany.com/albany-ny/green-building-custom-home-remodeling-contractor-albany.html
Would that separation of navigation structure and file structure be beneficial or would that time/effort setting it up be better spent elsewhere?
Thanks!
-
Hi Brian
I understand why you're asking this, as site architecture is very important in passing the link equity/authority of pages and the domain throughout the site.
However, unless your site is navigated differently as well, a change in URL structure like the one you have given won't make much of an SEO difference if the page still takes the same amount of clicks through the site navigation.
It may have some effect for the user - you may want to use the second structure if you believe it gives the user a more accurate URL to read (I'm undecided on this).
It could also have some slight positive SEO effect - it looks as though you'll be getting the targeted keywords in the URL. There is evidence to suggest a very slight correlation with keywords in URLs and higher rankings, but it's certainly not a huge influence. I'd be more inclined to optimise for the user, rather than the search engines, when it comes to URL structure.
You'll notice as well that the SEOMoz report for your site recommends URLs with less than 75 characters and definitely less than 200. Not sure if there is any SEO to this, but certainly from a user perspective being concise can help.
Going back to site architecture, I'm reminded of this great SEOMoz blog post - it summarises that your important pages should never be more than 3 clicks away, for a user or a search engine. This is more about navigation structure than file/URL appearance, but worth reading and noting.
If you wish to change to URL appearance, I'd always bear in mind what looks best for your user rather than the search engine. Provided that the page can be reached in the sitemap and in 3 clicks or less, your site architecture will be fine. Separating the consistency between the architecture and URL appearance is fine and won't negatively effect you, but I'd always do it for the user in mind.
Hope these links and this advice helps you out.
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
-
Two sites targeting same keywords (but with different owners)
Hi Guys So we manage a client website doing their seo and ppc The site has become a success so the client has now asked if we would like to create our own site and become an affiliate of theirs The idea is target the same set of keywords etc. My question is - in the world of google is this ok? I know about google penalising same business owners for having two websites targeting the same keyword.... But in this case - the websites are owned by different owners, different hosting, different domain ownership, different analytics code, different code development, different about us Everything is different but I am just a little paranoid that google knows we SEO the clients website Does anyone have any advice? Thanks Duncan
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CayenneRed890 -
My website is ranking well on most of keywords. How do I find more keywords in order to drive more traffic to my website?
I have a website which is ranking well on some good keywords ie generic and long tail. It is also ranking for some really competitive keywords. and now getting constant traffic. I want to increase organic traffic to my website. What are the best possible ways to do this? How to research more keywords and how to identify that they will really work? Please help, I am confused.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | rishi.ast0 -
Site Speed, is it worth it from a SEO point?
Hi, I understand a site which loads quickly is greater for the user but how does site speed affect rankings? I mean does Google log the speed pages load, the faster it loads the better the signal? So say I have a page which loads in 1.5sec would Google 'Rate' the site better if it loaded in say 0.8sec? Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | followuk0 -
Flash site ranking well for a competitive keyword
Hello Mozzers, Thought we'd get the group's opinion on this: This site (power lead generation) is ranking for the keyword "lead generation" on Google.ca at the 5th position organically . It's performing even better than some of the better optimized sites with more content related to this keyword. Any input would be appreciated. Cheers, SEO5..
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SEO5Team0 -
Cannot Increase Ranking For a Keyword Phrase
I've been working on the keyword phrase, "Niceville Assisted Living" for the website: http://nicevilleassistedliving.com and my increase in rankings has pretty much stalled. When I first started working on this website, a lot of the content was duplicated (which we took care of by plugging in unique content), there were locations listed on the homepage that were throwing my rankings off, I've created blog posts each week (we've even tried posting one post every day for a week), added the Facebook feed to the homepage, corrected errors in the theme, and I'm trying to get a resources page built. I know content is a very, very large part of SEO.. but it seems like the content I am plugging in isn't helping. There aren't any errors in Webmaster Tools and my keyword density is fairly close to the website ranking #1. I think my biggest problem is backlinks. Other websites have quite a few whereas the website I'm working on doesn't have any (I'm working on that, but the number I have doesn't compare to the websites ranking in the top three). I'm stumped as to what to do next. Does anyone have suggestions to improve the ranking for this keyword phrase?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ReviveMedia0 -
Outreach - what to give away in return
We are creating a PDF that is useful for people in our industry. In the email outreach, what should we give in return for these people using or linking to our PDF. Looking for a list of possible ideas.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BobGW0 -
Dropping dramatically in keyword rankings
One of my clients has always ranked well for this keyword (janitorial services, nh). Then within a week, they dropped out of the top fifty in Google and now in other major search engines as well. My first thought of why the drop in rankings is due to duplicate listings within online directories. The previous marketing person on staff was listing the company more than once in these directories, and it wasn't discovered until later in the link building process. Sometimes the company was listed with "janitorial services" as part of the company name, and then listed again with "carpet cleaning" as part of the company name... sometimes with duplicate address, or using the po box instead - as if two companies. The odd thing in all this is that while they dropped in ranking for this keyword, they still come in usually 1st in Google Places for this keyword with 12 excellent reviews. And yet when I check their Google Places account, it says that it needs to be reverified, again, it doesn't meet the terms. (company is a family owned business, for over 30 years, they have a lot of potential). So all this duplication needs to be fixed, but how serious are duplicate listings on places like Manta, YellowPages, SuperPages, also Yahoo Business Local and Bing Business Directory? And now that "forensics" seems to be my task, any suggestions on how to start? Any processes I should go through with Google WebMaster? _Cindy And, too, if I could add, the site ranks very poorly for this keyword and while I have provided recommendations, and they understand the onsite issue, they have yet to go forward with implementation, making this a little more difficult issue.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CeCeBar0 -
Why our site dropped in rank for a main keyword
Hello, Our site nlpca(dot)com dropped in rank for a few terms, including the main term "NLP". Could you look at our site and tell us what might be the cause? Thank you so much, Bob
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BobGW0