CODEWITHSUNDEEP
seo
Pawel
Pawel

Reputation: 41

SEO URL building - simple or hierarchy

I run an online shop and I wonder what would be more SEO-friendly URL for a product page:
a) domain.com/category-name/product-name OR
b) domain.com/product-name
I already have URL-s for product category pages with format domain.com/category-name.

On one hand I heard (but cannot find proof for) that Google like tree hierarchies in URL (vote for "a"). On the other hand though longer URL could lead to smaller kewyord density, also "product_name" comes as the last URL part so probably the least important (vote for "b"). Maybe both options are equally SEO-effective?

PS. I know about canonical URL's but this is not the case, I don't want/need both URL's formats, just want to choose the best.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 1623

Answers (5)

Pullie
Pullie

Reputation: 2735

As https://stackoverflow.com/users/290503/iamgopal stated. Smaller is better. More important if you use the category and at a later time you decide to put your product in another category you have changed the url. Which is not good even if you redirect.

We actually removed all categories from our url's (8 million products or so) to make re-categorization easier. We haven't noticed a significant drop in ranking after the redirect effect wore off.

Upvotes: 0

chainwork
chainwork

Reputation: 2886

A sites URL structure should be as simple as possible:

Google Webmaster Central Advice on URL structure

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=76329 http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/09/dynamic-urls-vs-static-urls.html

Google does highlight the search terms if they appear in the URL.

In Googles words:

"While static URLs might have a slight advantage in terms of clickthrough rates because users can easily read the urls, the decision to use database-driven websites does not imply a significant disadvantage in terms of indexing and ranking."

Upvotes: 0

San
San

Reputation: 4153

In my opinion, category-name/product-name might drive more traffic compared to just product-name. Because former one has the advantage of two keywords, while the later just has one.

But, it may affect the results when user just searches for product-name. Because search engines will prefer the keyword which comes very first in the url. In this case, product-name will defeat category-name/product-name.

So, it depends on the product and category you are going to use. How the users will address the product. simply the product or always with the category name. Just do a little keyword research and decide which one to go with.

Upvotes: 1

iamgopal
iamgopal

Reputation: 9132

smaller url are better. hard to manage as links grows.

so if you can do domain.com/product-name

nothing beats it. and it looks great on search result.

Upvotes: 0

Simeon
Simeon

Reputation: 5579

In a client case of mine, including both category and product name in the URL rendered much better SEO results. I have no empiric references, though. The keyword density landed on about 9-11 %.

Upvotes: 0

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