Wordpress Woocomerce Recommended SEO URL structure
-
Hi Mozzers !
Thanks for looking.
I have a new shop in development (http://www.vintageheirloom.biz), I'm now using WordPress & Woocommerce.
I've asked Woocommerce whether it is possible to remove the 'shop' and 'product-category' categories. They say it is, but it isn't recommended, it can slow site speed & create possible duplicate pages.
I'm wondering what seasoned SEO experts opinions are on my particular structure? I've heard that a flat structure is recommended, but ecommerce shops as I understand pose their own issues, so any feedback would be appreciated.. Here's some URL examples:
http://vintageheirloom.biz/shop/bags/ - this for the category bags
http://vintageheirloom.biz/product-category/bags/shoulder-bags/ - this for shoulder bags a child of bags category
http://vintageheirloom.biz/shop/2-55-bags/vintage-chanel-caviar-skin-2-55-bag/ - a product
The last URL contains the category 2-55 bags. The products name also includes the phrases 2-55 bag. Should this level of repetition be avoided or is it best to keep the whole phrase 'vintage-chanel-caviar-skin-2-55-bag/' for SEO purposes?
Thanks for any help you can give me around this issue!
Kevin
-
Glad it was helpful!
If you are going to have a true blog then that is enough in order to segment it out. Having the date in there can be helpful to compare the hits you are getting to old blogs vs newer blogs (i.e. how long your content is staying relevant).
If you are going to have other types of content such as shopping guides / product comparisons / etc that are more "timeless" pieces of content then you might want to think about the kinds of articles you are going to write and create prefixes that match those types of articles.
You could definitely do product guides and product comparisons in a blog but it can be harder to segment out if it is just "blog".
Hope that helps. Cheers!
-
Joshua,
Many thanks, that really is helpful.
When you mention a prefix for the blog, would simply adding blog be ok?
http://vintageheirloom.biz/blog/2013/08/vintage-heirloom-turns-4/
Thanks for the links I'm off to have a look !
Cheers !
-
Thanks Jon,
We get vintage bags, mostly unique but not always, e.g. we get several vintage Celine box bags over the year, so we do get duplicate titles and do need to add a serial number.
Biz is my dev area, but thanks for the info !
-
One thing to keep in mind with the urls is how you can segment them in analytics for easy data analysis. You want them to be semantic and pretty but also easily segmented. I would encourage you to think about how you will be able to segment your urls in analytics so that you can easily see patterns in how people are browsing the site and what types of pages are successful.
For instance we have the following url structures for brands, equipment, replacement parts, and a learning center.
- brand/[brand-name]
- equipment/type/[category] - for the categorization of equipment
- equipment/brand/[product] - for easy segmentation of products
- part/type/[category]
- part/brand/[part]
- learn/[cat]
- learn/article/[article-title]
This gives us a lot of flexibility in moving products around in the menu system without messing up urls while still being semantic, and allowing for easy segmentation in analytics. For instance, with this setup we can see if people prefer navigating by equipment catalog or by brand. It also allows us to easily pull out the learning center articles and all the visit we get to them to see how eCommerce only visits are doing.
One thing I would suggest with your blog is to have some kind of prefix that allows you to easily exclude those pages (or only include those pages) in analytics. If you simply go by year without a prefix it will be harder to segment out the data.
You should check out a mozinar that Moz did with Everett Sizemore that deals with a lot of these issues (he specifically talks about SEO and url structure).
Also, you probably have already seen this, but yoast's plugin for wordpress will allow you to remedy much of the duplicate content that wordpress can create.
Cheers!
-
You should ideally be able to write unique titles for every product and post without the need for serial numbers or dates to prevent duplication. But it won't do any harm to have the date in your post URLs if you want to.
I'd look at whether you can get a different domain to .biz as they aren't considered as trustworthy by web users.
-
Thanks for this Jon,
I tweaked the perma links and now have this for a product:
http://vintageheirloom.biz/shop/vintage-chanel-caviar-skin-2-55-bag/
It's a bit closer to the so named 'flat structure' and I think the URL still contains the reference that it is a 2.55 bag, hopefully this works. I'll get around duplications by adding a serial number or unique database number at the end.
We are blogging too so it might be worth keeping these categories, could avoid potential issues down the road.
I did notice I have a very flat structure for our blogs e.g.
http://vintageheirloom.biz/vintage-bamboo-gucci-bags/
This looks like it could lead to duplicates, so I've changed it to:
http://vintageheirloom.biz/2013/07/vintage-bamboo-gucci-bags/
Would you agree this is better?
Thanks
-
What you have looks fine to me, I don't think there will be an issue with repeating 2-55 bags in the product title as it would be useful for differentiating that bag from another bag of the same name that isn't a 2-55, eg vintage-chanel-caviar-skin-bag.
You could definitely remove the /shop/ or /product-category/ if your site is a shop and nothing else. If you have a blog, and want a 'bags' category then keeping /product-category/ might be preferable to avoid confusion and potential duplication.
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
-
What to do with existing URL when replatforming and new URL is the same?
We are changing CMS from WordPress to Uberflip. If there is a URL that remains the same I believe we should not create a redirect. However, what happens to the old page? Should it be deleted?
Technical SEO | | maland0 -
If I change Tags and Categories in Wordpress blog post, will it negatively affect SEO and cause 404s?
Hi, I have belatedly come to the conclusion that I have been using tags and categories when blogging in wordpress incorrectly. The result is that Google seems to prefer to show my archives and tags in search results rather than the post itself. Not good UX. As the site is only a few months old, am I best to learn my lesson and tag and categorize correctly moving forward or Should I go back in to these posts and clean them up & categorize and tag correctly. If I do this, will it cause 404s and hurt my SEO? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | johnyfiveisalive2 -
Word mentioned twice in URL? Bad for SEO?
Is a URL like the one below going to hurt SEO for this page? /healthcare-solutions/healthcare-identity-solutions/laboratory-management.html I like the match the URL and H1s as close as possible but in this case it looks a bit funky. /healthcare-solutions/healthcare-identity-solutions/laboratory-management.html
Technical SEO | | jsilapas0 -
URL Path to Store Article Library for SEO
What is the best URL structure for a domain to start adding a main directory for educational articles under? We want to find the best URL structure to keep articles under as a main, then category, then subcategory: For example, if my client is going after TWO SPECIFIC KEYWORD PHRASES as their primary (let's say they are KIDNEY DIALYSIS and CKD DIALYSIS, should they start building up their article library (for educational purposes as well as ranking/SEO), should they list it under which structure for the best SEO ranking opportunities: domain.com/KIDNEY-DIALYSIS/article1, article2, article3 domain.com/CKD-DIALYSIS/article1, article2, article3 domain.com/ARTICLES/article1, article2, article3 Both KIDNEY DIALYSIS and CKD DIALYSIS are critical phrases for them. Is it a waste of URL space to just have a home of domain.com/ARTICLES then build off that URL structure like: domain.com/articles/kidney-dialysis domain.com/articles/ckd-dialysis Thoughts? Ideas? Thank you!
Technical SEO | | ErnieB0 -
All in One SEO weirdness
For some reason, I'm getting extra words in my title tags. For example, I wrote "Washing Machine Widgets | Acme Widgets, Inc. | Acme Widgets Inc. Anyone have any idea why I'm getting the extra " | Acme Widgets Inc."? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | PGD20110 -
SEO for Wordpress
I am sure you have been asked this many times... What is the BEST Wordpress Plug-in for SEO - Easy to Title Page, Meta Tags, etc... ?? Thanks
Technical SEO | | tab540 -
The impact of mulstisite wordpress on seo
hi there, i would talk about a specific topic: The impact of mulstisite wordpress on seo Do you think that penalize seo activity ? i make you an example : a wordpress network of sites, domain based let the possibility to manage two domain on a single wp install, but even if the domains are separete, how does google see them, as separate or as a sigle domain?
Technical SEO | | guidoboem0 -
Keyword and URL
I have a client who has a popular name (like 'Joe Smith'). His blog URL has only his first name and the name of his company in it, like joe.company.com. His blog doesn't rank well at all in the first 3-4 Google SERPs. I was thinking of advising him to change the URL of his blog to joesmith.company.com, and having his webmaster do 301 redirects from the old URL to the new one. Do you think this is a good strategy, or would you recommend something else? I realize ranking isn't just about the URL, it's about links, etc. But I think making his URL more specific to his name could help. Any advice greatly appreciated! Jim
Technical SEO | | JamesAMartin0