SEO Dilution: Key Words in Sub Directories v Using a Hyphen in a Single Directory
-
Hi Moz Community,
I'm trying to understand if there is really any material difference with going with one URL structure compared to the other.
I assume the hyphen example below is what most would argue is the best option, but due to certain circumstances (I wont go into) I'm most likely going to be forced to use the sub directories URL option.
I'm just concerned that going down this path will have a material SEO effect...looking for peoples thoughts?
Keep in mind for this example:
-
I'm using the Shopify eCommerce platform and am forced to use the word 'collection' in the url
-
I sell shoes so the word ' Birkenstock ' within the URL represents the brand & 'Sandals ' represents the style.
-
The key word search in this instance would be birkenstock sandals
Example 1
http://companyname/collection/birkenstock/sandals V http://companyname/collection/birkenstock-sandals
Example 2
http://companyname/collection/sandals/birkenstock V http://companyname/collection/sandals-birkenstock
Will be interesting to hear if people what difference if any each will bring.
Thanks in advance for any insight.....
-
-
Hi Rene,
Thanks for the input and insight - much appreciated.
So expanding on your example and my specific question what do you believe the difference would be (if any) on search results for someone looking for Birkenstock sandals when you had two URL's of the below (considering all other SEO aspects were equal)
http://companyname/collection//sandals/birkenstock V http://companyname/collection/sandals-birkenstock
The restriction I've got are kind of forcing me to go with the first URL but with a fair amount of work and possibly ongoing maintenance I could go with the 2nd URL. However if the SEO result between the two is minimal then my decision on how to structure is easy - I go with what's easier to set up and manage.
Does that make sense?
Thanks...
-
Hi @chewythedog,
I would look at this from 2 perspectives.
First, unless you only sell sandals, or only sell birkenstocks, it makes sense to have another category level (ie /collection/{category}/{sub-category}
Second, I think you should use the common categorization of {category}/{brand}. This isn't really a search issue, it is a usability issue. Most people don't go out shopping for a brand. They don't say "today I want to buy something made by nike". They say, today I want to buy tennis shoes. Maybe they say, I want to buy nike tennis shoes, but they almost never say, today I want to buy something made by nike. While brand is important, most brands represent a broad number of products and thus it doesn't make sense to make them the primary category.
However, while people shop for product types, they search for brand+product (ie: people search for birkenstock sandals far more than they search for sandals birkenstock or sandals by birkenstock). Subsequently, while your categorization should probably be /sandals/birkenstock, the title of that page should probably be Birkenstock Sandals.
Finally, in general, link architecture is far more important than information architecture. You could have all of your URLs sitting in one directory (like wikipedia) and do great as long as you have a strong internal linking strategy. I would focuse far more attention on that than anything else.
-
Thanks Rene...but I'm really keen to know if the SEO difference would be marginal or significant, that is a key part of the question.
Cheers...
-
Shopify is good in many ways, but is also somewhat restrictive, in terms of URL. I would go with the shortest URL possible, which in this case is also the most describing one.
Shopify URLs are not good in terms of having a descriptive URL structure, and from I can tell, the so called, Shopify Experts, are only concerned about a webshop making any money. Not that they are possibly losing SEO benefits.
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
-
Ranking Above sub-domains
So I work for a company that has a very successful affiliate that operates under a third level domain name such as "region.company.com". Their SEO practices are very good and they rank highly in keyword searches. However "company.com" does not even though it is not a subdomain. Even after optimizing the company.com's pages etc, the regional sub domain ranks much higher for keywords and the main company fails to rank at all. Is Google discounting the main company's page? Is it a matter of trust or time? or is it something else? How can I get Google to prioritize the main company website rather than a lower level domain affiliate?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Resolute0 -
Which URL is better for SEO?
We have a URL structure question: Because we have websites in multiple countries and in multiple languages, we need to add additional elements to our URL structure. Of the two following options, what would be better for SEO? Option 1: www.abccompany.com/abc-ca-en/home.htm Option 2: www.abccompany.com/home.abc.ca.en.htm
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | northwoods-2603420 -
Social Impacts on SEO? How to Do this?
I'm new in SEO and heard by one of my friend that social signals are important for SEO of a website. If people have shared a website's url on their twitter, then it will automatically get rank in google. Is that true and how google sees this social sharing? and how can I do this for my website?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | hammadrafique0 -
Question about using abbreviation
Hello, I have this abbreviation inside my domain name, ok? now for a page URL name, do you recommend me to use the actual word (which shortened form of it is inside domain name) in a page name? Or when have abbreviation in domain name, then using its actual word in a page name is not good? It's all about how much google recognize abbreviation as the actual word and gives the same value of word to it? do I risk not using the actual word? Hope made myself clear ) thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mdmoz0 -
How to seo websites on another server
We have partners that want us to build and manage a co-branded white label for them. We will have unique content on the white label, however the white label will be located on our server. I was planning to put it on a subdomain and mask the URL, however was told that google will see through that and not give any credit to the white label. Our partners all have high PR and we are a new company with low PR. We want the white labels to get the credit from the partner websites. Should we do it through url masking or by changing the A Record in the other website to point to our server?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TravelerVIP0 -
Directories
Hi All, Some saying getting listed in hundreds of directories has no real SEO benefit. Some saying opposite. Some saying there are only one directory to concerned with, the Yahoo Directory. What are your opinions on this question after all Google's Pandas and Penguins ? Thank you
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Webdeal0 -
SEO - What Should We Do...
Hi Guys, Hope your all OK. Were having major problems with our homepage ranking for our main keyword - we were originally 4 but over the Christmas period our SEO company reported a fault with one of there servers that they were using for links, because of this fault these links were de-indexed from the search engine and in turn we have plummeted to 10th... At the time we had a landing page with an exact match keyword in it, e.g: www.ourdomainname.co.uk/key-word/ we were told to 301 this to our main page in Google but when we have looked today its now showing this page instead of our homepage. We also have another domain that we are using for a forum at the moment, now this domain name is an exact match doming e.g www.keyword.co.uk. The question is do we gamble and 301 our whole site to www.keyword.co.uk and see if we can get this ranking better? Thanks, Scott
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ScottBaxter0 -
Could Temporarily Linking New Directory Pages to my Homepage Help SEO?
Within my website we maintain a nationwide directory of auto repair shops. When we add or significantly update / modify a particular listing, would it help improve the individual search engine rankings, Google PageRank, and / or Page Authority of the new auto shop page if we linked these pages to an area on the home page for "Our Newest Featured Shops" or "Latest Member Additions" or something of the nature? Each new shop profile would then be linked directly from the homepage for a period of time. I assume that it might be crawled and added to the indexes quicker, but would there be other benefits? If so, would those benefits only be temporary if eventually the new shop no longer linked to the homepage? Would keeping all featured shops in rotational display on the homepage make any difference? Any input is appreciated. Thanks. Kelly Vaught
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | kelly_vaught0