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.
I want to move some pages of my website to a folder and nav menu in those pages should only show inner page links, will it hurt SEO?
-
Hi,
My website has a few SaaS products, to make my website simple i want to move my website some pages to its specific folder structure , so eg
website.com/product1/features
website.com/product1/pricing
website.com/product1/informationand same for product2 and so on,
the website.com/product1/.. menu will only show the links of product1 and only one link to homepage (possibly in footer).
Please share your opinion will it be a good idea, from UI perspective it will be simple , but i am not sure about SEO perspective, please help
thanks
-
Moving some pages of your website to a folder and modifying the navigation menu to show only inner page links can impact your website's SEO, but if done correctly, it doesn't necessarily have to hurt it.
But we don't have to think from SEO prospective only, we have to look the User experience angle too.
From a user experience point of view, moving some pages of your website to a folder and having a navigation menu that only shows inner page links can have both positive and negative impacts. Here's a breakdown of how it might affect user experience and SEO:
Positive Aspects:
-
Improved Organization: Structuring your website with folders can make it more organized and user-friendly, especially if you have a lot of content. Users can easily find what they're looking for within the folder.
-
Reduced Clutter: By only showing inner page links in the navigation menu for that specific folder, you reduce clutter and distraction for users. They are presented with relevant choices, making it easier to navigate.
-
Focused Content: This approach can help users stay focused on the content within that folder, as they won't be distracted by links to unrelated pages.
Negative Aspects:
-
Loss of Visibility: If you hide the outer pages in the navigation menu, users may have a harder time finding those pages, which could negatively impact their experience.
-
SEO Concerns: Search engines like Google may not be able to crawl and index the inner pages as effectively if they are not linked from the main navigation. This could lead to decreased visibility in search results for those inner pages.
-
User Confusion: Users may wonder why certain pages are not visible in the main navigation, and they might find it confusing or frustrating if they expect to see certain links there.
[you can Read the detail article here "How to improve user experience by moving pages to folders without harming SEO"]
Ultimately, the decision should be made with a balance in mind. Consider user experience and SEO best practices. You can organize your content in folders for better navigation while also incorporating alternative ways to guide users to important pages and ensuring that search engines can find and index your content effectively.
Warm Regards
Rahul Gupta
Suvidit Academy -
-
No, moving pages of your website to a folder and having the navigation menu show only inner page links will not necessarily hurt SEO. However, it's essential to implement proper 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new ones to ensure that search engines can still find and index your content. Additionally, make sure your new navigation structure is logical and user-friendly to provide a good experience for both visitors and search engines. (Study abroad) (2 Year Post Graduate Diploma Canada) (PMP Exam Prep) (Canada PR)
-
Moving pages of your website to a folder and adjusting the navigation menu to show only inner page links should not necessarily hurt your website's SEO if done correctly. However, it's essential to follow best practices to ensure that search engines can still crawl and index your content effectively. Here are some steps to consider:
- 301 Redirects: If you are changing the URLs of the pages, set up 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new ones. This tells search engines that the content has moved permanently and helps preserve SEO equity.
- Update Internal Links: Make sure that internal links within your website (from other pages, blog posts, etc.) are updated to point to the new URLs.
- XML Sitemap: Update your XML sitemap to include the new URLs. This helps search engines discover and index the new pages more efficiently.
- Robots.txt: Ensure that your robots.txt file does not block search engine crawlers from accessing the new folder and its contents.
- Canonical Tags: Use canonical tags if you have duplicate content issues, indicating the preferred URL for indexing.
- Submit to Search Engines: Resubmit your updated sitemap to search engines (Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, etc.) to expedite the indexing process.
- Test and Monitor: After making these changes, monitor your website's performance in search results and check for any issues using tools like Google Search Console. Address any errors or problems promptly.
By taking these steps, you can minimize the impact on SEO and ensure that search engines can still access and index your content effectively.
I focus on these main points when I want to move some pages of my website to a folder and nav menu in those pages should only show inner page links for my Site Pet Nutrition Guru.
It is also help ful when I move the blog (Can Cats Eat Mochi?).
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
-
Footer backlink for/to Web Design Agency
I read some old (10+ years) information on whether footer backlinks from the websites that design agencies build are seen as spammy and potentially cause a negative effect. We have over 150 websites that we have built over the last few years, all with sitewide footer backlinks back to our homepage (designed and managed by COMPANY NAME). Semrush flags some of the links as potential spammy links. What are the current thoughts on this type of footer backlink? Are we better to have 1 dofollow backlink and the rest of the website nofollow from each domain?
Link Building | | MultiAdE1 -
Escort directory page indexing issues
Re; escortdirectory-uk.com, escortdirectory-usa.com, escortdirectory-oz.com.au,
Technical SEO | | ZuricoDrexia
Hi, We are an escort directory with 10 years history. We have multiple locations within the following countries, UK, USA, AUS. Although many of our locations (towns and cities) index on page one of Google, just as many do not. Can anyone give us a clue as to why this may be?0 -
Is SEO effected of putting an external link in the primary navigation of a website?
I have a customer, www.xxx.com. This site has good traffic, low bounce rate (28%), 2:00 min avg time on site, and 45% return visitor rating. No spam rankings, etc. Good load time. Another site, www.yyy.com, has sent out a request for them to add them as a new link in www.xxx.com's primary navigation - using a title such as "abc" (not the name of the company or site of yyy.com). This second site, www.yyy.com, has a bounce rate of 98%, avg time on site is :30, and 10.2% return visitor rate. No spam flags noted in Open Site explorer. Plus they are asking other sites similar to www.xxx.com to do the same thing. Questions/Concerns and Feedback appreciated: Will yyy.com's analytics and quality pass back to xxx.com and cause Google or algorithms to flag or penalize xxx.com? (It ranks #1 for quite a few things.) The relevancy between the sites is good -same industry, same business objectives. From a usability standpoint, isn't it more appropriate to place a link to another website in a different way? e.g. a promotional graphic wit a link or anchor text links? Isn't it more appropriate to ask another business for links - not using the primary nav of a site? (It seems yyy.com is essentially asking other sites for 'free advertising/promotion.' Thanks!
Technical SEO | | mundsack0 -
Will removing the trailing slash impact my SEO?
Hi there, We have a company website based on Wordpress. I just noticed that under Settings > Permalinks I can configure the look of the URLs and even remove the trailing slash. We have about 2-300 pages online. If I remove the trailing slash now, will that negatively impact our SEO in anyway for existing pages? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | Amr-Haffar0 -
Are links in menus to external sites bad for SEO?
We're building a blog on a subdomain of the main site. The main site is on Shopify and the blog will be on wordpress. I'd like to keep the user experience as simple as possible so I'd like to make the blog look exactly like the main Shopify site. This means having a menu in the blog that duplicates the Shopify menu. So is it bad for SEO to have someone click on the 'about us' button in the blog subdomain (blog.mainsite.com) which takes you to the 'about us page' on the main shopify website (mainsite.com)?
Technical SEO | | acs1110 -
Does posting an article on multiple sites hurt seo?
A client of mine creates thought leadership articles and pitches multiple sites to host the article on their site to reach different audiences. The sites that pick it up are places such as AdAge and MarketingProfs and we do get link juice from these sources most of the time. Does having the same article on these sites as well as your own hurt your SEO efforts in any way? Could it be recognized as duplicate content? I know the links are great just wondering if there is any other side effects especially when there are no links provided! Thank you!
Technical SEO | | Scratch_MM0 -
Sitemap for dynamic website with over 10,000 pages
If I have a website with thousands of products, is it a good idea to create a sitemap for this website for the search engines where you show maybe 250 products on a page so it makes it easy for the search engine to find the part and also puts that part closer to the home page? Seems like google likes pages that are the closest to the home page (less clicks the better)
Technical SEO | | roundbrix0 -
Putting nav code at the bottom of a page?
Hey, We are doing a re-design on our websites and we have run into a little problem. Basically we need to put the nav code at the bottom of the page (so when you view source all the nav code it at the bottom) but the nav will of course still show at the top. Will this cause any issues with our SEO? Will it make the nav seem less important or get crawled less? Thanks for the help in advance! Ricky
Technical SEO | | Fubra0