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.
Sizes and numbers in friendly urls - syntax
-
Ok, I'm trying to establish some business rules of syntax for SEO friendly URLS.
I'm doing this for an OpenCart online store which uses a SEO-url field to construct the "friendly URL's". The good news of that is I have total control over the urls' the bad news is I had to do some tricky Excel work to populate them.
That all said, I have a problem with items that have sizes. This is a crafts store so many of the items are differentiated by size. Examples:
Sleigh Bells, come in 1/2", 3/4", 1", 1 1/2" etc.
So far Ive tried to stay away from inch mark " by spelling it out. Right now its inch but could be in.
The numbers, fractions, sizes etc. create some ghastly friendly URL's. Is there any wisdom or syntax standards out there that would help me. I'm trying to avoid this:
www.mysite.com//index.php?route=craft-accessories/bells/sleigh-bells/sleigh-bells-1-one-half-inch-with-loop
I realize that the category (sleigh-bells) is repeated in the product name but there are several 1 1/2" items in the store.
Any thoughts would be useful, even if it's links to good SEO sites that have mastered the myriad of issues with dimensions in the urls.
thanks
-
I'll have to dig deeper than my local big-box retail store. This is a url from a random screw at Home Depot:
This product exhibits the issue. Product name, size (8 x 2 1/2), style (Phillips, Bugle Head), Thread (Coarse), Point (sharp), Coating etc.
-
This is a good question and harkens back to original data modeling. Each size item is a different sku. There are modules for OpenCart that will make a "series" record to mask via interface that they are all different records (think click on different color) but in our case they have different sku's, can be out of stock, can even have different prices. The nature of the crafts store is American Indian supplies. So just in seed beads there are five common sizes, up to 200 different colors per size and some of those can have faceted beads or non-faceted (we call them cuts). Add all that up and there are a ton of products that come in and out of stock etc.
That's it generally. My comment about sizes is that there are many many things across the materials (bells, silver broaches, etc.) that are chosen by the buyer by material (brass vs silver) but then by size (1", 1.5" etc.) The size is a key component so since each one is a different "product record" it will naturally have its own URL. All these inches, millimeters, fractions and odd sizes (thread come D, O, OO, YO etc.) it's enough to make one bonkers. I have an SEO url for each product and am looking for input from others thougths before I go medieval on shortening them.
Hope that answers your question.
-
Some very powerful resources shared by Patrick as always but while I was reading the question several ideas were popping up in my mind.
You are saying you have several different products that are in different sizes. If this is the case, why not you make it one product and in the product section offer the size in the dropdown? #justwondering
In my opinion the best URL structure for you would be domain.com/category/product-name.php
Once you decide what URL structure you will follow, do go through the instruction given by Patrick so that there should be no technical problem with regards to indexing and ranking.
Hope this helps!
-
Hi John
Okay cool - keep me posted - want to make sure you get to here you need to be! Good luck!
-
Thanks. I've read many of these but will do so again looking for details on the technical data in the URL. It strikes me that hardware stores (Home Depot and Lowes) must have this issue with screws etc. Will go there too.
-
Hi John
Take a look at the following resources:
URL Best Practices (Moz)
15 SEO Best Practices for Structuring URLs (Moz)
SEO Cheat Sheet: Anatomy of A URL (Moz)
SEO Optimal Ecommerce URLs (PracticalEcommerce)
Information Architecture for SEO - Whiteboard Friday (Moz)
Canonicalization (Moz - in case aliases or parameters appear)Don't forget to update your sitemap, upload it to Google and Bing Webmaster Tools, and also check your internal links so they are up to date.
There is a lot here, but these resources should help you get started on structuring your website and also your URLs in a logical and user friendly fashion. Let me know if you need anymore help! Good luck!
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
-
Appending a code at the end of a URL
Hi All, Some real estate/ news companies have a code appended to the end of a URL https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-ormiston-141747584 https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/childcare-centre-could-face-prosecution-for-leaving-child-on-hot-bus-20230320-p5ctqs.html Can I ask if there's any negative SEO implications for doing this? Cheers Dave
Technical SEO | | Redooo0 -
Measuring the size of a competitors website?
I think our website is too big, far too many indexed pages. I'd like to do some research on how big our competitors' websites are (how many indexed pages). Is there a way to do this? Cheers, Rhys
Technical SEO | | SwanseaMedicine0 -
How do I customize Magento product urls?
I would like my product urls to be /category/manufacturer/name/part#. This would be the only url the item uses and how the product is accessed. It would also be used for product feeds. My first attempt was to use https://amasty.com/magento-unique-product-url.html This creates a single url but I can not customize it. Sometimes it selects the manufacturer and sometimes the category. My second attempt was with https://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/custom-product-urls-seo.html I have it installed but it doesn't change the urls. Has anyone been able to do this successfully?
Technical SEO | | Tylerj0 -
Is it Detrimental to Repeat a Word in Our URL?
Hey guys! We run a tour company in Barcelona. Our company name is Barcelona Experience. We're customizing our URL's to include keywords which can be found in all the important areas on the page (title tage, meta descp., etc).
Technical SEO | | BarcelonaExperience
We want to change "www.barcelonaexperience.com/bike-tours" to "www.barcelonaexperience.com/barcelona-bike-tours"
We're worried the repetition of "barcelona" could be a bad thing. True, or not true? Thanks!0 -
Removing Redirected URLs from XML Sitemap
If I'm updating a URL and 301 redirecting the old URL to the new URL, Google recommends I remove the old URL from our XML sitemap and add the new URL. That makes sense. However, can anyone speak to how Google transfers the ranking value (link value) from the old URL to the new URL? My suspicion is this happens outside the sitemap. If Google already has the old URL indexed, the next time it crawls that URL, Googlebot discovers the 301 redirect and that starts the process of URL value transfer. I guess my question revolves around whether removing the old URL (or the timing of the removal) from the sitemap can impact Googlebot's transfer of the old URL value to the new URL.
Technical SEO | | RyanOD0 -
Drupal URL Aliases vs 301 Redirects + Do URL Aliases create duplicates?
Hi all! I have just begun work on a Drupal site which heavily uses the URL Aliases feature. I fear that it is creating duplicate links. For example:: we have http://www.URL.com/index.php and http://www.URL.com/ In addition we are about to switch a lot of links and want to keep the search engine benefit. Am I right in thinking URL aliases change the URL, while leaving the old URL live and without creating search engine friendly redirects such as 301s? Thanks for any help! Christian
Technical SEO | | ChristianMKTG0 -
Image Size for SEO
Hi there I have a website which has some png images on pages, around 300kb - is this too much? How many kbs a page, to what extent do you know does Google care about page load speed? is every kb important, is there a limit? Any advice much appreciated.
Technical SEO | | pauledwards0 -
Products with discrete URLs for each color
here is the issue. i have an ecommerce site that on a category page, shows each individual color for each product sold. and there is a distinct URL for each color. each product page shares the same content, with the only potentially differentiating factor being customer reviews (not nearly enough of these to differentiate anything). so we have URLs like: www.domain.com/product-green www.domain.com/product-yellow www.domain.com/product-red and so on. i am looking for a way to consolidate these URL while still showing all colors on the category page. the first solution i am considering is using the hash tag. so we would create www.domain.com/product#green, www.domain.com/product#yellow, www.domain.com/product#red. if possible, i would set the canonical tag as www.domain.com/product. the second solution would be to use the canonical tag and keep the URLs as is. the issue i see here is that we would need to create www.domain.com/product and show that page somewhere. www.domain.com/product would the URL that the above color URLs would canonicalize to. what would be the preferred solution? or is there something else?
Technical SEO | | rakesh_patel0