6 replies to this topic

[mrgoodfox]

Which one is better in terms of SEO:

www.ecommerce.com/black-rayban-sunglass-3

or


www.ecommerce.com/black-rayban-sunglass-3.html

or

www.ecommerce.com/sunglasses/rayban/black-rayban-sunglass-3

[EGOL]

If you have very few products then I would go for #1.

If you have an awful lot of products then I would go with #3 for ease of management and for putting category pages all in the same folders and subfolders.

[mrgoodfox]

I have about 200 to 300 products.

[A.N.Onym]

It might also depend on how traffic-rich and competitive the main keyphrases for the categories are. If you really want to have the keyphrase in the URL at low amount of products, it should be worth it. It also depends on the amount of categories and whether you'll expand in the future.

I'd take a balanced approach here, not just from the SEO point of view, anyway.

[cre8pc]

#3 has 2 directories and then the product page. That's a lot of drill down for engines, which I wouldn't do for a large inventory. The traffic and user demand has to be a factor at this point.

For Information Architecture SEO, the keywords are stronger if you choose what users choose for their search queries. So for example, you may call an item one thing but customers use another word for it more often.

Don't trap yourself into a narrow hub. If there isn't a lot of "raban" products, don't block the pages in there.
You want to be able to expand and grow.

Be sure your navigation follows along with breadcrumb links if you do break out into categories and sub-categories.

[A.N.Onym]

Kim, do you mean that the actual amount of subdirectories in the URL matters for the search engines, not just the internal linking, which can be improved? I've heard it both ways and for some reason the former seems strange to me, even if true.

Edited by A.N.Onym, 21 April 2011 - 01:10 AM.

[cre8pc]

I use caution with sub's because unless there's a compelling reason to travel into them, I doubt SE's or people will click there, and its the user traffic that sends the signals rather than where we may wish to try and force bots to go. Doesn't mean bots won't keep digging, but I like to choose my battles and where I put my energy and time.

For manufacturing sites, the IA is really complicated, and users looking for specific tools or parts will dig down into hubs and subs looking for specific needs. To capitalize on that, I recommend well structure, on page SEO on every page of the journey. The key in this instance is always creating "Sense of place" for users as they drill down and search/browse. Repeated patterns of this usage, with no abandonment, indicate a quality user path and that sends a stronger signal than a weaker prepared set of tasks.

Works for long tail. Offers more optimization opp's because the user choices help determine the more accurate search query keywords. Of course, the landing pages for each click have to be optimized well.