Optimizing a URL/menu structure

[joberts]

Hi Mozzers,

I'm working on Content Strategy at my job, and I'm close to making some recommendations on short/long-term direction. While I'm there, I want to tackle the URL/menu structure (correct term?), which is a bit of a mess as pages have been created without any consideration for it over time.

For ease, let's just say we have 3 main subdirectories of the site (Section A-C), and let's also say that section A also has 3 important subdirectories. From a UX perspective at least, we want a page to look like:

example.com/sectionA/subsectionAA/page1

but currently it's

example.com/page1

We have dozens and dozens of these examples. To complicate matters a little further, Sections B and C have been earmarked to be consolidated into a new section (D), as they're currently confusing and overlapping, and create roadblocks in user journeys. So a page that is, say:

example.com/sectionB/page2

may well want to be:

example.com/sectionD/subsectionDA/page2

I'm comfortable enough with technically doing this, as I'm experienced enough in Drupal and have an agency on hand too, BUT - I don't know if there are any SEO pitfalls I need to be wary of when I'm doing this, beyond resubmitting sitemaps, and the trickle-down effects of redirects.

Any advice, wise forum? thanks!

[BenFinklea]

You said you were comfortable with the technical side but I'm a bit of an expert on Drupal SEO and there are some shortcuts. The main one being, use the Pathauto module and the Redirect module. Together, when you change the URL of a node, they will automatically create the 301s. I'm sure your agency would have set that up in the first place.

As far as SEO pitfalls for moving content around, you'll lose about 15-20% of the value of any links coming into the old URL. Google doesn't hate redirects but they do discount them slightly. You might use a tool to look at any backlinks you have coming into those pages and contact the webmasters of the sites in question to update them. Tedious but worth it for important links.

You can fix a lot of the internal links to the old URLs just by updating the Menu system and any sitewide blocks that you're using (like the sidebar or footer).

When I move content, I take the time to buff the SEO of those pages to try and offset any temporary dips in rankings. Often, by the time it's all said and done, the pages actually rank higher than they did before the move. Especially if you haven't implemented Schema.org in JSON-LD yet or set up AMP, both of which have ready solutions in Drupal.

[joberts]

Thanks Michael.

Re: hits from the 301s, am I right in thinking that on the flipside, our root directory and directories one removed will (assuming content becomes more relevant!) will eventually see a benefit from having these lower-importance pages further away?

[Tenlo]

Make sure you have all of your new urls plotted and are ready to implement 301 redirects for each one.  Also make sure to go back and update your current 301s so that they are pointing to the newest pages, not creating chains of redirects.

Also, don't be surprised if you take a small hit from moving many of those pages further from your root directory, as long as your content is relevant you should be able to bounce back within 90 or so days, but expect drops even with full 301 redirects.