Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
How to Define Best URL Structure for Product Pages?
-
I am working on my website to edit structure with help of Google's search engine optimization starter guide.
There is really good instruction to define URL structure which help us to perform well over Google's organic search. I have resolved issues regarding category pages but, I have confusion to define best URL structure for product pages. My website's product page URL structure is as follow.
http://www.vistastores.com/marketumbrellas-californiaumbrella-slpt758-f13-red.html
http://www.vistastores.com/homefurniture-winsomewood-93630.html
URL structure is constructed with following terms.
1. Root Category Name (Market Umbrellas or Home Furniture or ....)
2. Brand Name
3. Manufacturer Part Number
I am not happy with this structure and also not performing well over Google's organic search. I am thinking to include product name or title tag in URL after root domain. But, it may create very long URL and create issues in organic search display.
Does it really matter to perform well over Google's organic search? How can I define best URL structure for product pages?
-
I would recommend dropping the .html / htm extensions from both URLs.
The first URL is quite long and has too many folders. I am concerned the page requires too many clicks and/or you are stuffing too many keywords in your URL.
-
I have done some R & D and come to know about few Good URL structure which I am going to follow.
http://www.bellacor.com/bronze-transitional-glass-shade-golden-lighting-chandeliers.htm
-
That is quite a URL! Definitely not the best structure.
What exactly did you search for do generate that URL?
-
I'm again on this question. Because, I'm going to make big change on URLs.
1. Product Pages
2. Narrow by Search Pages.
I don't have issue with product pages. But, Narrow by search pages create with too many nesting sub directories as follow.
Can you suggest me best one for this kind of structure? I have read Google official guidelines and Randfish post on it. But, I have just mind set & want to get some additional inputs via this question.
-
I want to add my response on this question after long time. Because, I have made few changes as per discussion. You can see by this excel sheet.
I have changed entire structure for URLs and finished following tasks.
- 301 Redirect [Old URLs to New URLs]
- Multiple XML Sitemaps [Create Category Wise & Submit to Webmaster Tools]
- Rel=canonical for duplication
I have very simple question for crawling. How Google will act for these changes. Will Google slow down my crawling or not? OR any other inputs which may help me in same direction!
-
Any time I work with a website, I envision what a "world-class" version of the site would look like, then work to make the image a reality.
Design your pages for a world-class audience:
-
If Steven Spielberg wants to find a lamp for a movie scene, are your pages something he would want to look at for ideas?
-
If Madonna needs a new lamp in her living room, would she ever look at your pages and think "wow, that would go perfect in my home"
-
Can you imagine any interior design magazines or Good Housekeeping linking to your page and mentioning it?
You have lamps which show a retail price of $1000. It's not really a price thing, because you will see models wear inexpensive clothes if they have the right look. The idea is to showcase your products in the best possible light.
-
-
I still strongly dislike the idea of having product ids in the product title. I am not clear of your reasonings for adding the id to the title. The only place the title is seen is in search results.
Social media buttons next to each product is a very good thing.
-
Hey Ryan!! Again very good suggestion to hire good SEO consultant.... I am 1000% to going to do that.... What you think about future performance of this website... ? Can I mesh up lighting industry with proper SEO stuffs? This is really big mind bubble in business direction... This is not SEO but as per your knowledge ... Does it really matter to do it in future?
-
It's really really good answer. But, I am not able to click Good answer... Don't worry about it.
BTW: I am getting your point... I am selling tiki torches with Table Lamps board... If any stall in market for selling tiki torches so banner of canopy will be Tiki Torches... What you think about it?
I have list down all suggestions in my diary... as follow.
1. Remove initial Number from title tag and add in to end.
2. Edit URL structure with name. may be include category name.
3. I will add unique content with product details.
4. I am going to add more images for products. (What you think about social media buttons like Google plus, Twitter and Facebook?)
If any missing so you can add in this list... So, that's great for me.
-
Your site has 5k+ errors, 11k+ warnings. My main concern is the 4k+ duplicate pages. The issue is your pages lack content. You need to add unique, relevant, quality content to every page of your site you wish to be indexed.
I would recommend a professional consultation with an SEO. Your site offers very nice products. Your site requires a tremendous amount of SEO attention. Proper SEO can have a dramatic impact on your site's pages being index and your overall sales. If you wish to do-it-yourself, that is possible to but you have a very long way to go. Please check out the Beginner's Guide to SEO.
-
I thinking one solution for it. I am going to add manufacturer part number in Title tag rather than URL...
If you take that approach definitely add it to the END of the title, not the beginning. I looked at your site and your page title shows as "53927 Phoenix Copper Waterproof Floor Lamp". Horrible!
The idea of a page title is to allow users to know what the page is about. The item id really shouldn't be part of a title.
The summary of your site is, you are doing far too much too fast. You are not giving your items and pages the attention they require, and your SEO and sales will suffer for it. Your goal is to offer as many products as you can, as fast as possible, as cheaply as possible. This approach directly conflicts with quality measures.
Take one product I found on your site: http://www.vistastores.com/indoorlighting-patiolivingconcepts-53927.html
I understand the product page completely. This is one of 7k+ products you offer. It was likely added to your page as part of a database feed. But look at the URL, the page and it's content. Now take a step back and imagine for a moment you had a small, established lamp shop and this product was one which was added to your store today. Think about adding this page to your site.
The page URL would probably be: http://www.vistastores.com/phoenix-copper-waterproof-floor-lamp. The URL would be much more helpful all around.
Think about the page text. You would describe the lamp itself, maybe offer some examples of it's uses "perfect for intimate lighting in areas near fishtanks, bathrooms, indoor gardens or other areas with higher levels of moisture".
Think about the additional pictures you might provide if this lamp was just one of a few items you sold. You would probably have a few nice displays and can show the lamp in each setting.
The bottom line is, your wish to sell 15k+ products is driving the quality of your site's pages to very low levels. There is almost no unique information on the pages. If you hired someone to spend 2 hours on each and every page making them personal, adding content, etc. the value of those pages to your customers and to search engines would substantially increase. I understand if you can't afford to do it, but you also need to understand your SEO and conversion challenges you will face as a result of "speeding" so fast with an e-commerce site.
-
I want to give few answers for your questions. I have already done some of following tasks for my website. But, still not getting... That's why I am too much irritated with it.
1. Have you submitted a sitemap to Google? If not, do so as there are clearly some issues.
My answer: Yup, I have submitted to Google, Yahoo & Bing.
2. Have you performed a test crawl of your site? Use the SEOmoz crawler. You don't need a 100% complete report. You are trying to review your site for crawl errors which impact your whole site.
My answer: Yup, I have checked it. You can find out attachment to know more about it. You can help me more on this section. Because, I am quite new with SEOmoz tools.
3. I would suggest examining your site's navigation. With only 1% of your site getting indexed, there may be a problem.
My answer: Regarding what? Top navigation? Left navigation? Footer? Breadcrumb or HTML sitemap?
4. Do you have any content on your product pages? If you just throw up an image with a product name, the page will likely not be indexed.
My answer: You can look in to know more.
http://www.vistastores.com/indoorlighting-patiolivingconcepts-68267.html
I have added all product details, manufacturer details (But, it's duplicate on many webpages.)
5. Ensure your robots.txt file is not blocking pages which should be indexed.
My answer: Yup, I checked it ... http://www.vistastores.com/robots.txt.... It's perfect... according to my opinion...
6. Thoroughly examine your Google WMT for errors and issues.
My answer: I will do it... It's remaining.
-
@ Ryan Kent
Oh great. Thanks man...
You are right about manufacturer part number. But, I have added it to URL because duplication of product title in website. There are 7000+ products and may be 15000+ products in near future.
Sometimes, It's quite critical or time consuming to develop unique product title for all products. Because, it seems like duplicate title from manufacturers' sheet.
I personally believe to make product live before making unique title for each products. So, right now it's helping me to prevent duplicate product URLs with my website.
I am thinking and 100% implementing your suggestions regarding .html.
Manufacturer part number may be help me to create organic presence during that search. I have also submitted my products over Google shopping and going to disply during manufacturer part number.
I thinking one solution for it. I am going to add manufacturer part number in Title tag rather than URL...
So, URL will construct with root category or sub category + Unique SKU number + product name.
What you think about it? thanks again!!
-
I am working on such a big eCommerce website with 7000+ products. Website is live since more than 3 months. But, Google have indexed only 94 URLs.
It is important to determine the root issue which is causing your pages not to be indexed. It is not going to be your URLs. Check the following:
1. Have you submitted a sitemap to Google? If not, do so as there are clearly some issues.
2. Have you performed a test crawl of your site? Use the SEOmoz crawler. You don't need a 100% complete report. You are trying to review your site for crawl errors which impact your whole site.
3. I would suggest examining your site's navigation. With only 1% of your site getting indexed, there may be a problem.
4. Do you have any content on your product pages? If you just throw up an image with a product name, the page will likely not be indexed.
5. Ensure your robots.txt file is not blocking pages which should be indexed.
6. Thoroughly examine your Google WMT for errors and issues.
-
My first suggestion is to drop the ".html" extension at the end of your URLs. It offers no value to you nor your site's users. It just makes the URLs longer and less readable.
My next suggestion is to separate words with hyphens. Use /home-furniture not /homefurniture
With respect to a part number, that is a disadvantage many larger sites have which smaller sites don't experience. Do you NEED to have a part number in the URL? Does it help your employees or customers? Or can you do well with just the product name? If a part number is required, I would at least recommend keeping it down to one number. Your example of "93630" seems fine but your other example of "slpt758-f13" is not desirable.
I would also try to work on your category and product names to ensure they don't duplicate each other. /market-umbrellas/california-umbrella seems unnecessary.
To sum it all up, I would suggest the following for your URLs based on the examples above:
www.vistastores.com/market-umbrellas/california-red
www.vistastores.com/home-furniture/winsome-wood
If product ids are required then add them as -93630
-
Oh! Great.. First of all, thanks for your prompt reply.
Why I want to do this? That's big question for me. I am working on such a big eCommerce website with 7000+ products. Website is live since more than 3 months. But, Google have indexed only 94 URLs.
I have really big mind bubbles for it. I don't know what's going on with my site & How can I resolve it. My ultimate goal is to improve indexing and index maximum webpages of website.
I come to know about Google's search engine optimization starter guide and assumed that described points can help me to achieve me in same direction.
URL structure is also one part of that PDF version. So, I am going to think about it. I am also thinking about your suggestions.
-
I personally don't think that changing your URL as you described will result in big increases in rankings on the organic search. Especially considering the work required (and the potential loss of incoming links to URLs you forget to redirect), I wouldn't recommend the change you've described.
If however, you really want to change the URLs, this is the structure I'd advice:
www.example.org/category-name/123-product-name
This allows people to cut a piece of the URL and land of your category overview page, shows them to what category a product belongs and keeps the amount of 'sub levels' to a minimum by including the id in the second level.
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
-
Is the URL Matching the Page Title Important?
Hello I have tried searching for an answer on this but I can't get a clear answer due to the results when searching for URL title. I have just launched our second Shopify site for one of our brands. My first site launched in 2014 but when I launched I didn't pay much heed to SEO for page titles, URLs, etc so have retrospectively fixed this over time. For my Shopify site just launching I want to get it as right as possible from the start (learning from mistakes). My question is regarding URLs and what my approach should be for better SEO. So, I have a page with a Title of Newton Leather Wallets, Purses, Card Holders & Glasses Cases and the URL is https://www.tumbleandhide.com/collections/newton-leather-wallets-card-holders It was my understanding that I should try and make the URL reflect the Page Title more accurately. The problem is that this takes the character count to 77. On other pages it can be in the 80s. Will the above link be better for SEO than say just https://www.tumbleandhide.com/collections/newton I am just wary of the URL's being too long as my Moz Site Crawl is returning a lot of URLs that are too long. Thanks in Advance.
On-Page Optimization | | lukegj0 -
City Name in URL structure
I have a client whose site was built when they only served one market, and they now have that city in the majority of their URLs. I'm suggesting we redo the URL structure to remove this location from the main URLs (think homepage, about, etc.) since they have now expanded to three markets. They are seeing a lot of great organic traffic in that original market but are struggling in the new ones they've added so I'm helping to optimize their site. How critical do you think that removing that location from the URL is? I know we would need to implement 301 redirects, but wanted to get thoughts on this.
On-Page Optimization | | maghanlinchpinsales0 -
Product content length & links within product description
Hello, I have questions regarding content length and links within descriptions. With our ecommerce site, we have thousands of products, each with a unique description. In the product description, I have links to the parent category and grandparent category (if it has one) in the main product text which is generally about 175 words. Then I have a last paragraph that's about 75 words that includes links to our main homepage and our main product catalogue page. Is the content length long enough? I used to use text that was 500 words, and shortening it I still rank when launching new products, so I don't think an increase in text length will have any additional benefit. I do see conflicting information when I do searches, with some people recommending a minimum of 300 words and some saying to try and go a 1000 for category pages. In regards to the links, I noticed a competitor has stopped following this format, so I'm unsure if I should keep going too. Is it too many links to have each of the products link back to the main catalogue and homepage? Is it good to have links with anchor text to the categories a product is in? There are breadcrumbs on the page with these links already. There are already have heaps of links on our pages (footer, and a right sidebar with image links to relevant categories), so my pages do get flagged for too many links. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | JustinBSLW0 -
Noindex child pages (whose content is included on parent pages)?
I'm sorry if there have been questions close to this before... I've using WordPress less like a blogging platform and more like a CMS for years now... For content management purposes we organize a lot of content around Parent/Child page (and custom-post-type) relationships; the Child pages are included as tabbed content on the Parent page. Should I be noindexing these child pages, since their content is already on the site, in full, on their Parent pages (ie. duplicate content)? Or does it not matter, since the crawlers may not go to all of the tabbed content? None of the pages have shown up in Moz's "High Priority Issues" as duplicate content but it still seems like I'm making the Parent pages suffer needlessly... Anything obvious I'm not taking into consideration? By the by, this is my first post here @ Moz, which I'm loving; this site and the forums are such a great resource! Anyways, thanks in advance!
On-Page Optimization | | rsigg0 -
Should I add PDF manuals to my product pages?
Hello. A lot of the products I sell on my e-commerce site are very technical. I decided to add PDF data sheets, manuals etc on each of the product pages to improve the customer experience. Now I am not sure if it was the best thing to do. I have noticed a couple of times that the PDF is out ranking the product page in the SERP. For a few products, the PDF ranks but the product page doesn't. Anyone got any ideas?
On-Page Optimization | | DavidLenehan0 -
Add content as blog post or to product pages?
Hi, We have around 40 products which we can produce plenty of in-depth and detailed "how to"-type pieces of content for. Our current plan is to produce a "How to make" style post for each as a long blog post, then link that to the product page. There's probably half a dozen or more of these kind of blog posts that we could do for each product. The reason why we planned on doing it like this is that it would give us plenty of extra pages (blog posts) on their own URL which can be indexed and rank for long tail keywords, but also that we can mention these posts in our newsletter. It'd give people a new page full of specific content that they can read instead of us having to say "Hey! We've updated our product page for X!", which seems a little pointless. Most of the products we sell don't get very many searches themselves; Most get a couple dozen and the odd few get 100-300 each, while one gets more than 2,000 per month. The products don't get many searches as it's a relatively unknown niche when it comes to details, but searches for the "categories" these products are in are very well known (Some broad terms that cover the niche get more than 30,000+ searches a month in the UK and 100,000+ world wide) [Exact].
On-Page Optimization | | azu25
Regarding the one product with more than 2,000 searches; This keyword is both the name of the product and also a name for the category page. Many of our competitors have just one of these products, whereas we're one of the first to have more than 6 variations of this product, thus the category page is acting like our other product pages and the information you would usually find on our product pages, is on the category page for just this product. I'm still leaning towards creating each piece of content as it's own blog post which links to the product pages, while the product pages link to the relevant blog posts, but i'm starting to think that it may be be better to put all the content on the product pages themselves). The only problem with this is that it cuts out on more than 200 very indepth and long blog posts (which due to the amount of content, videos and potentially dozens of high resolution images may slow down the loading of the product pages). From what I can see, here are the pros and cons: Pro (For blog posts):
1. More than 200 blog posts (potentially 1000+ words each with dozens of photos and potentially a video)..
2. More pages to crawl, index and rank..
3. More pages to post on social media..
4. Able to comment about the posts in the newsletter - Sounds more unique than "We've just updated this product page"..
5. Commenting is available on blog posts, whereas it is not on product pages..
6. So much information could slow down the loading of product pages significantly..
7. Some products are very similar (ie, the same product but "better quality" - Difficult to explain without giving the niche away, which i'd prefer not to do ATM) and this would mean the same content isn't on multiple pages.
8. By my understanding, this would be better for Google Authorship/Publishership.. Con (Against blog posts. For extended product pages):
1. Customers have all information in one place and don't have to click on a "Related Blog posts" tab..
2. More content means better ability to rank for product related keywords (All but a few receive very few searches per month, but the niche is exploding at an amazing rate at the moment)..
3. Very little chance of a blog post out-ranking the related product page for keywords.. I've run out of ideas for the 'Con' side of things, but that's why I'd like opinions from someone here if possible. I'd really appreciate any and all input, Thanks! [EDIT]:
I should add that there will be a small "How to make" style section on product pages anyway, which covers the most common step by step instructions. In the content we planned for blog posts, we'd explore the regular method in greater detail and several other methods in good detail. Our products can be "made" in several different ways which each result in a unique end result (some people may prefer it one way than another, so we want to cover every possible method), effectively meaning that there's an almost unlimited amount of content we could write.
In fact, you could probably think of the blog posts as more of "an ultimate guide to X" instead of simply "How to X"...0 -
Which is Best Practice for creating URLs for subdomain?
My website is related to education. We have created sub domains for all major colleges, universities & Entrance exams like Gre, Toefl ETC. for eg: amityuniversity.abc.com (Amity is Name of University ) Now if have to mention city name in URL as well (college is located in multiple locations) amityuniversity-delhi.abc.com
On-Page Optimization | | rohanarora536
amityuniversitydelhi.abc.com Now my Q is can we use hyphens in sub domains if we have to add city name or shall we create without using any hyphens. In Directory structure we can always separate words with hyphens, can we follow same practice in subdomain as well Which is a best URL for subdomain amity-university-delhi.abc.com
amityuniversity-delhi.abc.com
or amityuniversitydelhi.abc.com0 -
Are blank Product Review pages bad for SEO?
Hi there, I'm running a new e-commerce site (BoatOutfitters.com) and have a question about our product review pages. On our current campaign, we have a lot of duplicate page content errors. When we export the data, it's almost all blank product review pages (since we are new, we don't have that many product reviews yet). Our product reviews aren't run through javascript, so we originally did not add them to a robots.txt file - however, I'm now wondering if it's worse to have all of these duplicate blank pages, or is it not affecting our SEO at all? Should we just wait until these products have reviews which will benefit our SEO and then they won't be considered "duplicate pages" - right? Sorry if this has been answered before - new here at SEO Moz and just looking for some help. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | BoatOutfitters0