URL / sitemap structure for support pages
-
I am creating a site that has four categories housed in folders off of the TLD.
Example:
example.com/category-1
example.com/category-2
example.com/category-3
example.com/category-4Those category folders contain sub-folders that house the products inside each category.
Example:
example.com/category-1/product-1
example.com/category-2/product-1
etc.Each of the products have a corresponding support page with technical information, FAQs, etc. I have three options as to how to structure the support pages' URLs.
Option 1 - Add new sub-folder with "support" added to string:
example.com/category-1/product-1-support
Option 2 - Add a second sub-folder off of the product sub-folder for support:
example.com/category-1/product-1/support
Option 3 - Create a "support" folder with product sub-folders:
Which of these three options would you choose? I don't like having one large /support folder that houses all products. It seems like this would create a strange crawling and UX situation. The sitemap would have a huge /support folder with all of my products in it and the keywords in my category folders would be replaced with the word "support."
Because I would rather have the main product pages ranking over any of the support pages (outside of searches containing the word "support"), I am leaning toward Option 2: example.com/category-1/product-1/support. I think this structure indicates to crawlers that the more important page is the product page, while the support page is secondary to that. It also makes it clear to users that this is the support page for that particular product.
Does anyone have any experience or perspective on this? I'm open to suggestions and if I'm overthinking it, tell me that too.
Thanks, team.
-
Agree with Dirk. You can use links to show the structure more effectively than the URLs per se.
-
Hi,
To be very honest - I don't think crawlers are looking at the way you structure your url's. In my opinion these 3 options are equally valid and it depends on your personal preference how you want to organise it. Also think about your reporting needs - it's very easy in Analytics to put filters based on folders (or to use the drill-down reporting)
What is more important is how you make this information accessible for the users - which is completely unrelated to the url.
Like Bryan mentioned - it could be useful to have a support section on your site - regrouping all the support documents for all the products on your site. Again - this could be done regardless of your choice of url's.To determine the importance of a page crawlers are mainly looking at two things:
- how many links does this page get (both internal and external)
- how many clicks do I need to get from the homepage to this particular page
The relevance is also determined by factors like appearance of keyword in url, H1,...etc all the basic stuff - but these would again be identical for the 3 scenario's you propose.
Hope this helps,
Dirk
-
That depends on the UX and UI. If it makes sense that someone looking at one support document may be interested in others, or other support-related content in general, I would absolutely go with Option 3. However, if the product support pages are absolutely meant to only be related to the specific product, then Option 1 or 2 (which sound like they're the same thing) would be fruitful.
I, myself, would go with Option 3 without question. But it really depends on your navigation and such.
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
-
301 redirect from dynamic url to static page
Hi, i want to redirect from this old link http://www.g-store.gr/product_info.php?products_id=1735/ to this one https://www.g-store.gr/golf-toualetas.html I have done several attempts but with no result. I anyone can help i will appreciate. My website runs in an Apache server with cpanel. Thank you
Technical SEO | | alstam0 -
Problems with canonical urls / redirect (magento webshop)
Hi all, We're running a Magento webshop and we discover some strangs things regarding canonical urls and redirects after using the Amasty improved navigation extension. To clarify, please check these four urls. They contain the same content (the same product page). https://www.afwerkingshop.be/gyproc-gipskartonplaat-ak-2600x1200x9-5mm.html https://www.afwerkingshop.be/wanden/gyproc-gipskartonplaat-ak-2600x1200x9-5mm.html https://www.afwerkingshop.be/wanden/gipsplaten/gyproc-gipskartonplaat-ak-2600x1200x9-5mm.html https://www.afwerkingshop.be/wanden/gipsplaten/standaard/gyproc-gipskartonplaat-ak-2600x1200x9-5mm.html All these four pages have different canoncials (the page url). Obviously, that's not good. However, in Google (site:...) url (1) is the only one that's indexed. Thereby, if I visit the productpage by first going to a category page (fe. www.afwerkingshop.be/wanden.html), I'm redirected to url (1), but the canonical url is www.afwerkingshop.be/last_visited_category_name/product. So, the canonical seems dynamic depending on the last visited category. And still, only url (1) is indexed. Additionally, all aforementioned pages contain . Is anyone familiar with this issue? And more important, will it cause problems in future? Thanks in advance. Kind regards, Chendon
Technical SEO | | RBijsterveld0 -
How bad is it to have duplicate content across http:// and https:// versions of the site?
A lot of pages on our website are currently indexed on both their http:// and https:// URLs. I realise that this is a duplicate content problem, but how major an issue is this in practice? Also, am I right in saying that the best solution would be to use rel canonical tags to highlight the https pages as the canonical versions?
Technical SEO | | RG_SEO0 -
How do I deal with /mobile/ page after responsive re-design?
Hi guys, One of our clients used to have a website that would redirect mobile traffic to a /mobile/ page. Thankfully we've finally gone fully responsive and there is no need for this /mobile/ page. Trouble is, www.clientsite.com.au**/mobile/** is still in the Google index and going to a 404 right now. What is the best way to deal with it? Should we be 301 redirecting /mobile/ to / (the home page)? Would be most grateful for any ideas. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | WCR0 -
If I want clean up my URLs and take the "www.site.com/page.html" and make it "www.site.com/page" do I need a redirect?
If I want clean up my URLs and take the "www.site.com/page.html" and make it "www.site.com/page" do I need a redirect? If this scenario requires a 301 redirect no matter what, I might as well update the URL to be a little more keyword rich for the page while I'm at it. However, since these pages are ranking well I'd rather not lose any authority in the process and keep the URL just stripped of the ".html" (if that's possible). Thanks for you help! [edited for formatting]
Technical SEO | | Booj0 -
How to Remove Old Comment Page Query String URLs
I used to use a comments program on my website that created comment pages in the form of http://www.example.com/web-page.htm?comm_page=2. When I switched to a new comments program, I worried that these old comment URLs would be considered duplicate content. I created a 301 redirect that, for example, would redirect http://www.example.com/web-page.htm?comm_page=2 to http://www.example.com/web-page.htm and disallowed them in robots.txt, which I later learned was not the thing to do.. I have removed the URLs from being disallowed in robots.txt. However, many months later, these comment page URLs keep appearing in Google's index from time to time. I use the "Remove URLs" tool in Google Webmaster Tools to remove the URLs from Google's index, but more URLs appear a few days later. How can I get rid of these URLs for good? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | MrFrost0 -
Structuring URL's for better SEO
Hello, We were rolling our fresh urls for our new service website. Currently we have our structure as www.practo.com/health/dental/clinic/bangalore We like to have it as www.practo.com/health/dental-clinic-bangalore Can someone advice us better which one of the above structure would work out better and why? Should this be a focus of attention while going ahead since this is like a search engine platform for patients looking out for actual doctors. Thanks, Aditya
Technical SEO | | shanky10 -
How does Google find /feed/ at the end of all pages on my site?
Hi! In Google Webmaster Tools I find *.../feed/ as a 404 page in crawl errors. The problem is that none of these pages exist and they have no inbound links (except the start page). FYI, it´s a wordpress site. Example: www.mysite.com/subpage1/feed/ www.mysite.com/subpage2/feed/ www.mysite.com/subpage3/feed/ etc Does Google search for /feed/ by default or why do I keep getting these 404´s every day?
Technical SEO | | Vivamedia0