We are finally setting up landing pages to support our PPC campaigns. There has been some debate internally about the URL structure.

Originally we were planning on URL's like:

• domain.com
  • /california
  • /florida
  • /ny

I would prefer to have the URL's for each state inside a "state" folder like:

• domain.com
  • /state
    • /california
    • /florida
    • /ny

I like having the folders and pages for each state under a parent folder to keep the root folder as clean as possible. Having a folder or file for each state in the root will be very messy.

Before you scream URL rewriting :-). Our current site is still running under Classic ASP which doesn't support URL rewriting. We have tried to use HeliconTech's ISAPI rewrite module for IIS but had to remove it because of too many configuration issues.

Next year when our coding to MVC is complete we will use URL rewriting.

So the question for now: Is there any advantage or disadvantage to one URL structure over the other?

Update:

I used ISAPI_Rewrite from http://www.helicontech.com/ to handle domain alias redirects and it uses proper 301 redirects to the primary domain.

Also I found an article in the Google Analytics Forum Archive http://groups.google.com/group/analytics-help-basics/browse_thread/thread/380a839ebd9a7f6a which answered my other question on finding the count of referrals to the primary domain from the alias domains. Apparently it's very simple and their is no setup needed. Just go to Visitors -> Network Properties -> Hostnames for your site's profile in GA.

We have hundreds of domains which are either alternate spelling of our primary domain or close keyword names we didn't want our competitor to get before us.

The primary domain is running on a dedicated Windows server running IIS6 and set to a static IP.

Since it is a static IP and not using host headers any domain pointed to the static IP will immediately show the contents of the site, however the domain will be whatever was typed. Which could be the primary domain or an alias.

Two concerns.

First, is it possible that Google would penalize us for the alias domains or dilute our primary domain "juice"?

Second, we need to properly track traffic from the alias domains. We could make unique content for those performing well and sell or let expire those that are sending no traffic.

It's not my goal to use the alias domains to artificially pump up our primary domain. We have them for spelling errors and direct traffic.

What is the best practice for handling one or both of these issues?