URL Structure For E-commerce Sites

[jayoliverwright]

Hi Guys,

I was wondering what would be the optimal and best URL structure for sub-categories on a E-commerce site for SEO purposes.

Example if my category was dresses and I had multiple sub-categories within dresses would 1 or 2 below be the better URL structure?

1) Domain + Category + Sub-Category be the most suitable URL structure:

Sleeveless Dresses URL: clothingstore.com/dresses/sleeveless-dresses

Midi Dresses URL: clothingstore.com/dresses/midi-dresses

2) OR would excluding the category be better Domain + Sub-Category like:

Sleeveless Dresses URL: clothingstore.com/sleeveless-dresses

Midi Dresses URL: clothingstore.com/midi-dresses

Do you think it makes much of a difference, is shorter better and more effective in this case?

E.g. Rand discuses in this article: https://moz.com/blog/15-seo-best-practices-for-structuring-urls  that having the keyword in the URL serves as anchor text, so wouldn't having additional keywords dilute value in this case? Plus he mentions shorter URLs the better.

Cheers, Chris

[Andy-Halliday]

Hi

Yeah agree with Chris the first option is the best way to go and the way we went after loads of research.

Thanks

Andy

[ChrisAshton]

Hi Jay,

Your first example is the best way to go about it. It makes for clear categorisation and, less importantly, it does have that keyword relevance as well.

In my opinion, your URL structure and nav structure should always be the same. It gives a clear, concise and logical path to follow and makes breadcrumbs easier to manage as well.