Preferred URL structure for directory pages?
-
Hi Moz-Mind,
We've got a bunch of duplicate content issues in our directory of trucking-related businesses, caused by search terms that can appear in any order, (classic mistake). We're taking advantage of this our work on URLs to try to improve our URL structure, and I'm not sure which way I want to go.
These are the options we're considering. What does the Moz-mind think of each of them?
- example.com/location-name/service-name
- example.com/service-name/location-name
- example.com/service-name-near-location-name
For the moment location-name would be a city & state abbreviation, like atlanta-ga, (unless it's better to use something else).
Since these are search URLs, it's also possible to add a distance restriction, and a keyword, to the search criteria. How do you suggest adding the distance restriction?
- example.com/service-name/location-name/50-miles
- example.com/service-name/within-50-miles/location-name
- example.com/service-name-within-50-miles-of-location-name
And the keyword?
- example.com/service-name/location-name/keyword
- example.com/service-name/location-name/keyword/{actual-keyword}
- example.com/service-name-near-location-name/keyword
Something else?
I was leaning toward example.com/service-name/location-name/within-50-miles, but I thought of the /service-name-near-location-name/ and /service-name/within-50-miles-of/location-name options today and really like how they make sense both to computers and to people, not unlike example.com/GA/atlanta/service-name/50
I'm looking forward to hearing what the community thinks. There must be an established best practice for directories, but if it's kind of ugly I'd like to find an even better way, if possible.
Thanks,
John
-
Thanks for the insight - it does make sense to go with /location-name/service-name because people might want to look at all services in a location, but all locations for a service doesn't make much sense, (unless someone's scraping my site, and I don't want to make life easy for those people!).
Things like /within-50-miles will be canonicalized to the base location as you suggest. You're right that there isn't much difference between that and simply /service-a/location-a
I want everything to be bookmarkable, so keyword search will be either a parameter or another path, (like /keyword-{urlencoded keyword content} ), and I may or may not canonicalize that to just the location/service combo, or simply noindex it, or leave it as-is and see what happens. The /location-a/ part of the URL can accept a lot of formats, and some, like GPS coordinates, will have to be noindexed to avoid duplicate content, (I guess I could rel=canonical them to the closest town or something, I can save that as an experiment for later).
Thanks again for the insight. It makes sense to me.
-
There are a lot of different ways that you can go with this, some of which will be pretty much equal in value. I would recommend going /service-name/location-name, or /location-name/service-name, depending on which of these is more important to be viewed by itself (so ask yourself: are there times when someone would be looking at the service without looking at the location, or vice versa?). The main important thing, as you point out, is that it's one or the other, not both.
I would recommend making location its own folder /within-50-miles, and adding it to the end of the URLs, rather than creating a whole different hierarchy for distance restriction.
With the keywords, how would you add in the actual keyword? Would it be with a URL parameter?
Even without the use of URL parameters, you should carefully consider which of these pages will be the canonical version. /service-a/location-a and /service-a/location-a/50-miles won't be that different in content, I imagine. It would probably be a good idea to use the canonical tag to point the distance-restricted pages back to the location pages, and let users drill down from there, rather than trying to make every permutation of factors its own landing page. Does that make sense?
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
-
Which one of these URL's will rank the best?
Hello! Curious on the community's thoughts on linking best practices for the following hypothetical scenario: I own a site called landscaping.com and want to rank for the term "landscapers houston". I have a link on the top title bar linking to landscaping.com/landscapers-near-me with an interactive map with clickable links leading to different metro areas. What should be my link from that page to the Houston page? 1. landscaping.com/landscapers-near-me/landscapers-houston 2. landscaping.com/landscapers-near-me/houston 3. landscaping.com/landscapers-houston 4. landscaping.com/houston The main question is whether to include the parent page or not. i have 2 conflicting thoughts. 1. short URL's are better so dont include it 2. include it because that is the page that links out to it and it helps Google understand the site flow. Thanks, Ryan
Local Listings | | RyanMeighan0 -
Will using call tracking phone numbers in paid legal directories listing negatively affect our website?
I know it is important to have consistent NAP across directory listings but I would like to gauge the ROI on the paid "premium" listings in legal directories like FindLaw, AVVO and Lawyers.com by using call tracking and recording. Could using different phone #'s in these listings affect our website negatively? Same question for YELP ads (ads only, not organic yelp listing).
Local Listings | | SEO4leagalPA0 -
Google My Business page no longer appearing with search results
Title pretty much says it all--my company's local Google+ page has always appeared under our listed website information up until very recently. I'm also noticing the same with our competitors. Has anyone else just began to experience this? Our NAP, map, photos, and review are still displayed to the right of the results, but nothing is linked to the actual Google page itself. Am I missing something? Thanks!
Local Listings | | LMcLaughlin0 -
Rankings stuck on page 2 - what am I missing?
My business website ranked on the first page for 48 of 51 keywords for years. Then 10 months ago I had a duplicate content problem from a bad plugin and every keyword ranking dropped off the first page. I got the duplicate content problem fixed, but I've been stuck with only 3 keywords of 51 on the first page ever since. This is a local site and without much competition at all. http://www.pmaaustin.com The Yoast SEO Plugin shows the on page optimization of nearly every page/post on this website as solid Green, but MOZ rates nearly all of my pages' On Page Optimization as an F. It rates nearly all these keywords as an F as showing they should all be optimized on the Home page. I don't understand that. Also according to MOZ ,versus my competitor's websites, I have mostly the highest Domain and Page Authority. I also has the largest # and most relevant Root Domains. It also has the best written content, and the almost only active blog. Still, nearly every keyword is sitting on page 2. It seems like it wants to "Spring" onto page 1! What am I missing?
Local Listings | | OhYeahSteve0 -
Correlation between ranking on Google organic result page and ranking on the local listing
Hi Moz fans, A quick question: any correlation between ranking on Google organic result page and ranking on the local listing or vise versa? Thnx Saab
Local Listings | | S.Saab0 -
International Local Directories
I am wondering if anyone has come across a list of local directories for all countries/ regions. Like if there is a cheat sheet anywhere for what local directories exist for Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, UK, etc.
Local Listings | | EPICcreative0 -
Anyone know what makes a directory get served up?
Hi All, as most know, directories are taking over the SERPS as of late, and my question is: What "tells" Google that it is a directory? What does Google look for that gets these directories showing? I understand the big ones probably have back-room deals with Google, but I am seeing some smaller ones showing. Any ideas?
Local Listings | | BBuck0 -
Google automatically generating and verifying duplicate business pages?
Was on the phone with Google Support about duplicate, verified pages showing up and they said they're doing a "cleanse" in which an automated system is reviewing existing listings and making decisions as to how those look, which often results in a new page that Google then automatically verifies. Their Support phone system has been bogged down with people calling in, but I'm not seeing anything when I search about this issue. Is anyone else experiencing this?
Local Listings | | copyjack0