What to do when a Bad URL has to stay?
-
I am working with a friend on optimizing a site that has a troublesome set of issues.
The company has integrated some ERP system that cannot be changed or removed and it is creating goofy URL's. So my question is which URL do I build links to? the www.xxx.com or the crazy URL that it is being redirected to.
Site URL: www.nauticalchartsonline.com
redirect: http://www.nauticalchartsonline.com/n.c/NauticalChartsOnline.htmlI would greatly appreciate constructive feedback.. Thanks, Jeannie
-
I agree with James here. Especially if you have anchor text in the link, people aren't going to see that URL as much. While it's not the best URL, I've certainly seen worse.
Do you have any update you can give us with any interesting lessons learned or things that you did?
-
Send links to the new (ugly) URL. Consistency is critical, all links to the same content must use the same URL. The actual URL is less important; more a "would be nice" rather than a "must have"
-
Moldy, they will not allow me to change URL structure and know SEO will be limited. We are going to go ahead. Your answer was really helpful.
-
Can't you just do a quick .htaccess url rewrite to remove the /n.c?
If you want the links to have more value sending them to the actual /n.c/ directory would be better (as long as there is no plan to change the url stucture in future.)
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
-
HOW DOES A CANONICAL INFLUENCE OR IMPACT ON A URL WITH BACKLINKS?
I have url A with a canonical to URL B. How is the behavior of the backlinks profile on url A? If some put a backlink to url A count as a backlink for url B?
Link Building | | Linio0 -
Backlinks to an anchor name URL: How Google sees them
I have been searching for the answer to this question and to my surprise have yet to find anything on the web. This is my situation: I have a form at the bottom of one of my pages and have another website that wants to link to this page, more specifically this form. I have an anchor link on the page to this form already. I was planning on sending the anchor name URL to the Webmaster to link to my page so their users will go straight to my form. My question is: do I lose link juice to my URL from this link because it is an anchor name URL? Does Google see this link that goes to a specific portion of my page to be less valuable than if I just linked to the plain URL? Cheers Sean
Link Building | | Tyler1232 -
Link from a non existing page- is it bad?
If Google Webmaster tools is showing a link to my site and when checked, that page doesn't exist (404 error), does that mean anything? Is it bad?
Link Building | | Personnel_Concept0 -
Are the following considered bad links for Link Building.
I've been doing a lot of research lately on link building & I've read a lot about having a diverse amount of links. Social links, Blog links, comment links, footer links, No follow links, Directory links as well as links with Anchor text URL match, brand match, partial brand match, non-descriptive, and with keywords. But there is a lot of talk of removing those links that look like a site that's built just for link building purposes.... but Directories are basically built for link building are they not? I'm wondering if anyone can tell me if they feel links from the following directories would be bad links. (Non-Paid) http://www.yoganza.com http://www.wkool.com http://www.wee-directory.com http://www.voicelet.com www.hotfrog.ca http://www.webdirectorieslist.com http://multiplelistingboard.com http://mozdirectory.net http://freedirectorypr.info Industry specific below: http://bestautolinks .com http://automotivedome.com http://automobilebuzz.com http://craigsautolinks.com Thanks so much for the help!
Link Building | | DCochrane0 -
Best SEO Friendly URL
Hi. Currently I'm using the following url: mysite.com/this-is-the-news-title/news-1234 The news title followed by the directory and the news id. Same goes to mysite.com/my-name/user-123 I think its better for SEO since the relevant words (news title and name) are to the left of the link. But some people are saying that this is not good for SEO because crawlers can't "organize" the urls in directories. So they say its better to use: mysite.com/news/this-is-the-news-title/1234 mysite.com/user/my-name/123 Cause then the crawler know what is a news and what is a user. What do you guys think? Thanks.
Link Building | | rapchan0 -
Link exchange with nofollow bad for ranking?
Hi, I wanted to give my EMD (Exact match domain) some more links and added it to some general start pages, just as my competitors did. The disadvantage of such link sites is that you have to add a link back to them. So I created a new page in my footer "links" and added a link back to those who requested that. However, I made all links a nofollow because I don't want them to benefit from my rankings. Those sites really have nothing to do with my subject and are just interested in a link to give them some boost I guess. I'm sure not everybody like my approach, but my question is. Will those nofollow links on my page back to the ones that requested it affect my rankings?
Link Building | | severtservice
Or should I remove the nofollow? Thanks!
Dennis0 -
How do I link specific keywords to a specific URL on my landing page? i.e.-Cloud Computing
Example keyword Cloud Computing California. How do I link this keyword on SeoMoz to a specific URL on my landing page?
Link Building | | SteelsmithGroup970 -
How do i remove bad links ?
Google have sent me an email regarding manipulativre link or paid link etc. Tey are asking me to fix the issue then resubmit my site for consideration. My site IS still in the search results but i suspect that they may remove it soon. I suspect that a competitor may have a contact in google andthey are submitting complaints against my business but we do have many link to my site . How am i going to know exactly what link are the problem.
Link Building | | SydneyMove0