SEO and URL's

**morleymouse** · 19-02-06

just wondered what your thoughts were on constructing urls and the importance of the order in how its done. Basically if your using scripts to get products from a database and mod_rewrite you can create URLs however you want but which do you think would be more effective something like...

website.com/product-name/main-category

or

website.com/main-category/product-name

or

other?

Just be interested to see what people thought

**Another Media** · 19-02-06

Hey Dan,

I would go with website.com/main-category/product-name - its structured more logically.

SEO wise I don't think it will make much difference.

you would think it would be better as website.com/product-name/main-category
because people would search for: "nokia 6230 mobile phone" and that setup would mean your site structured like so website.com/nokia-6230/mobile-phones and it's a better match for the search term.

My testing has been non-conclusive.

Just make sure your page title reads "product name main-category" such as "nokia 6230 mobile phones" and the SEs will like it.

**morleymouse** · 19-02-06

yeah thats what ive used i nthe past was wondering whether to go with something different for a new site, but then again if it aint broke dont fix it

just wondered if they gave any priority as to where the search term came i nthe URL, as in closer to the domain the better but if it doesn't really matter il stick with whats worked before

**Darren M** · 20-02-06

Originally Posted by Another Media

My testing has been non-conclusive.

How would you go about testing something like this? I was thinking of doing some SEO directory structure testing with some obscure keywords and seeing which method gained the highest result.

The trouble is, whilst you're changing the folder structure you'd need to keep the web page constant to get a meaningfull result. Would this upset Google's dupe content filters?

**Xcaping Oz** · 02-03-06

I noticed Dan had done it a little while ago and it seems to have been successful. But whatever you do in regard to SEO it will take time.

Tops, i don't think google will penalise you for it but they will pick up on it. Are you using a rewrite already or still using ?$=%·$%! 's?

**eskimo** · 02-03-06

If you can be bothered, this article at wmw decribes one approach and the logic behind it.

http://www.searchengineworld.com/eng...e_pyramids.htm

**morleymouse** · 02-03-06

Originally Posted by Xcaping Oz

I noticed Dan had done it a little while ago and it seems to have been successful. But whatever you do in regard to SEO it will take time.

you did

didnt think anyone here knew any of my sites!

**Xcaping Oz** · 02-03-06

Sorry i was only aware that you worked with Alpha or are you with TD?

**tim_lb** · 02-03-06

We had a very noticeable and fast improvement when working with Titles and switching from category/product_name to product_name/category last year. It doesn't follow on that URLs would be treated the same, though and we never got a chance to test.

**morleymouse** · 02-03-06

Sorry i was only aware that you worked with Alpha or are you with TD?

Cross breed, affiliate (many years) / alpha AM (week and a bit)

**Sammy aff** · 02-03-06

MSN loves product url's, yahoo does to an extent, google don't give two s****

But after todays news "MSN search will be better than Google in 6-months"
It would not hurt to semi-spam the url.

Of course many will take MSN's statement with a pinch of salt. But I agree, MSN will beat Google search, (I think they are pretty close now for real 'I wanna buy type search queries', MSN cannot compete with research type queries over google$.

Google is the king of spam sites caused through their own greed and their adsense agenda. It was a superb biz model.

MSN will filter adsense scrapers out of their search (as yahoo are attempting to do now)

But having the best search is only half the battle, there are zillions of google washed surfers out there...msn will need good marketing also to shift surfers habbits. They will win eventually, the problem they face is how long...

**getvisible** · 03-03-06

MSN loves product url's, yahoo does to an extent, google don't give two s****

Not entirely true. I'd go for the product-cat/product-name.htm option.

At the moment MSN is not all that popular with top SEO experts. The quality just isn't there.

I was at a presentation by the new owners of Ask.com the other day. Now that is going to be one hell of a nice system. They don't have the resources of the bigger three, but take a look around it. Very nice indeed.

**Xcaping Oz** · 03-03-06

I think many people still have the idea in their heads that Google is for search and Msn is for messenger/news.

I pay clode attention to the Sponsored search they have through Yahoo and it is terrible. I'm off on a cruise in the Med next week and one of my stop overs is Nice. The first result is from Encarta which I expected to be good. The info was ok but very short - I prefer info from the CIA FactBook. But the Sponsored Sites promote Edinburgh (http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encycloped...7924/Nice.html)

I think it will still take some time before they refine their workings properly

**monk-i** · 03-03-06

Alot I think will happen with the release of Vista in terms of MSN search. If they can get the search integrated as heavily as possible into the OS and some good marketing they are onto a winner.

I think Google is too much of a one trick pony hence they are trying to move into other areas.