URL Structure & SEO - Should we be using sub-folders?

[NAHL-1430]

Hi all,

As part of our content marketing efforts we have run a number of initiatives in the past and created pages on the website to go along with them (also where the links for these particular projects point to).

However, the URL structure isn't actually a reflection of where the pages sit on the site. Unfortunately I'm unable to provide a URL for reasons I won't bore you with, but here's an example:

We recently ran a competition that was very successful in generating links. The URL for this is www.domain.co.uk/competition.

However, the page actually sits within the About Us section - which is where all of our news and content marketing pages go - and uses a URL override.

How much of an issue is this in regards to A) Our SEO in general?; and B) Ensuring we receive as much equity from the links we earn as possible? A brief explanation of what URL overrides actually are would also be useful! (We have a digital marketing agency who handle most of our SEO)

Thanks in advance guys!

John

[NAHL-1430]

Hi Jimmy,

Thanks very much for the reply!

John

[NAHL-1430]

Hi Tom,

Yes that's exactly right. The link from the About Us section goes directly to www.example.com/competition - it doesn't quickly redirect.

Thanks for putting my mind at ease!

John

[TomRayner]

Hi John

Just to make sure I'm reading this correctly.

You have your homepage.  You can then click to the "about us" page.  And from there, you can click to the "competition" page.

However, instead of it looking like: www.example.com/about-us/competition, it looks like: www.example.com/competition

Is that correct?

If it is, then I don't think there is anything to worry about.  Here's why:

Think of your URL as merely a cosmetic thing.  Your URL structure does not have to reflect how a search engine or a user reaches that page.  The most important thing in terms of site structure and SEO is how a search engine crawler (and user) reaches that page - IE, how many clicks away from your root domain it is.

As a rule of thumb, you should try to keep all of your important pages no more than 3 clicks away from your homepage - and ideally as few as possible.  How the URL is presented when the user/search engine reaches that point is not relevant**

**This isn't entirely the case - there is some correlation with including your keyword in the URL and higher rankings, albeit a very slight correlation.  For example, some sites have links to their main pages from their homepage which then take you to a URL like: http://www.example.com/keyword/product-a - that doesn't mean that the search engine has to reach the page by going through that subfolder (which may not even exist), but the display URL contains the keyword and so it might be better for SEO (although I think if this does have an effect it is very, very slim).  Conversely, if your main page URL was http://www.example.com/keyword, but it takes you four clicks to reach there, it would not be good for SEO as your page is so far away from the homepage.

The main guidelines here are to:

• Keep your main pages as close to the homepage as possible (via internal links)
• Try to include the keyword in your URL if possible (or at least use friendly, readable URLs)

Now, on the "about us" page, the link that goes to the "competition" page - does it go directly to www.example.com/competition, or is it linked to www.example.com/about-us/competition and then quickly redirects?

If it's the second scenario, that would be an unnecessary redirect and might involve some of the link equity being diluted.  I'd get the agency to look at linking to the www.example.com/competition page directly if that is the case (although I doubt it will be).

I hope that helps to explain some things!

[DSM_UK]

Hi John,

Your URL override sounds like a 301 redirect, you can test this by going to what the URL actually is in your system, e.g. www.domain.co.uk/about-us/pages/competition with a
'URL Redirect Checker'
If it reports as '301' then that is good (Moz has a section on redirects in their learn section). 
If it reports as another type of redirect then that would not be as efficient as a 301.
Pages that come back as '200' are direct links (these are the best), 301 is 'Moved Permanently', they also prevent the page from being indexable via both URLs so as to remove any duplicate content possibilities.
301 redirects are 'meant' to carry all the equity across so nothing is being lost from an SEO perspective

In terms of SEO, having the easiest URLs possible is always a bonus, not only does Google prefer shorter URLs but is also encourages direct traffic and visitor referrals (you'd rather tell a friend to go to a particular if it easy enough to type).

Kind Regards
Jimmy