Site structure suggestions/feedback

[wisamabdulla]

I asked this on Reddit and got some some decent answers. I'm curious to see what the pro's of SEOmoz think.

I've got a lead generation site for forklift parts--liftxparts.com. You can think of it similar to car parts, where we have sections for specific brands (e.x. Toyota forklift parts) and sections for specific categories (e.x. forklift filters).

Right now, the site is structured in two main levels: the top level is a dozen or so brands (separate pages for Toyota forklift parts, Clark forklift parts, etc), and then the second level is the categories (separate pages for a dozen or so different categories like forklift filters, forklift engine parts, etc.).If you check out one of the pages, like Clark forklift parts for example (our top landing page)--liftxparts.com/clark-forklift-parts.html, you'll see that on the brand pages (they're all structured the same), we list all the different categories (with links to the same second level category pages) and "search" buttons. All pages point to the same lead capture form.This has been working pretty well--about 90% of visitors end up on our lead capture form, and a high percentage of those convert.

We're working on increasing organic traffic now and I'm thinking our structure could use some improvement.Looking at the analytics, there are a lot more impressions for keywords like "clark forklift" than "clark forklift parts". One gap I've uncovered is while our average position, and by extension CTR and traffic, for phrases like "clark forklift parts" is quite good, it's not so good for broader and higher searched terms like "clark forklift". Should we add another level of hierarchy targeted to just general brands? So now we have content for clark forklift parts, but should we add a page for terms like "clark forklift"? Or should we just add some broader content to the existing brand pages? The pages are quite long already, I'm afraid adding more content to the bottom of the page isn't very functional.

Our thinking is that we can increase average position for higher searched terms by adding content targeted to those terms. The question is how exactly to go about it and how to work it into our current site structure?

Any feedback related to our site structure or even just related ideas about other ways to approach our goal of increasing organic traffic would be very much appreciated! Thanks!

[danatanseo]

Hi RealW,

Well, as an in-house SEO I am very familiar with this scenario. I might have more questions (meant to be provocative) for you than answers. I guess we'll call it "the Socratic method of SEO"

Okay, so here we go:

Why do you want to target the term "clark forklift?"  Do you sell Clark forklifts, or just Clark forklift parts?

If you don't sell Clark forklifts, and that's what people are looking to shop for, what are they going to find at your site that gives them what they searched for?

Are you just plain after more traffic (and not necessarily conversions)?"

When you are targeting keywords for your SEO, you have to (I stress HAVE to) check your ego at the door. This isn't necessarily hard for SEOs but it can be next to impossible for business owners and CEOs who feel like they should rank for every keyword under the sun.

Here's an example straight from my work today. I got a message from the CEO (I am the in-house SEO) stating his dissatisfaction that we weren't ranking for this term: "mackie th-12a/" I researched the term and discovered that nearly every competitor outranking us had higher page authority, domain authority, more links and a more recent cache date. Not only that but the niche the product seems to appeal to is the DJ market, while we primarily sell to churches. I sent him all the data comparing domains, together with my evaluation that it was the wrong niche and said point blank "we don't rank for this term because we aren't very relevant for this term."

Given that your current site structure and keyword choices are converting well, I wouldn't mess with that. If you go broader at terms that you aren't particularly relevant for then all you are doing is getting traffic, throwing it at the wall and hoping something sticks. That takes a heck of a lot of work and effort for precious little return.

Make a list of productive, relevant keywords and stick to them like glue. If you find you can't make a business out of that because the niche you created was to tight, then you need to broaden your business model before you broaden your keyword list. Going at it the other way around is...well "===" backwards.

Just my two cents! I wish you good luck and hope something here helps!

Dana

[earlyadopter]

hi,

There are many ways to organize pages on a site. Unfortunately, some common techniques of organizing information can also harm your SEO strategy.

Sites organized by a hierarchy determined without reference to SEO might not be ideal because the site architecture is unlikely to emphasize links to information a searcher finds most relevant. An example would be burying high-value keyword pages deep within a sites structure, as opposed to hear the top, simply because those pages don't fit easily within a "home", "about us", contact" hierarchy.

Please check these for better understanding about site structure

The Pillars Of Strategic SEO & A Primer On Website Design

Intelligent Site Structure for better SEO

Getting Site Architecture Right

Good luck

[wisamabdulla]

Hi Dana,

Thanks for your quick reply.

I see your point about making sure you have the right goal in mind in targeting broad keywords. A quick search of "clark forklifts" does speak to what you hinted at--virtually all of the first page of the SERPs is dedicated to actual equipment and not parts.

I guess the logic was, we're currently getting a nice chunk of traffic from that keyword (and many others like it), and since over 90% of visitors end up on our "search form", you have to assume that a good amount of traffic coming from those broad keywords is ending up on the search form (although, as I'm typing this, I guess I could just check GA instead of assuming haha) and so if we can increase average position for those words, we can increase CTR, which will increase traffic, and, finally, increase conversions.

If targeting broader keywords maybe isn't the best strategy for increasing organic traffic, should we be expanding our list of relavent keywords and target stuff that we're not currently ranking for, or increasing position for words we are currently ranking for? For the relavent keywords we are doing well with now, virtually all of them are in the top 3, it doesn't seem like we can squeeze more traffic out of those existing relavent keywords (again as I'm typing this, maybe the increase from around 5% of traffic in third position to around 18% in first position, multiplied across many of our existing keywords does add up?). How many of those targeted and tight keywords is reasonable for us to try and target? Right now, we're only tracking about 30.

Thanks!

Wisam

[danatanseo]

Yes Wisam, I would expand that list of specific keywords. Do you monitor your on-site search? Do you look at your keywords in Adwords (if you are doing PPC) for the keywords that actually trigger your ads (versus terms that you are bidding on)? Both of those places are great places to get ideas for keywords permutations you may haven't yet considered.

In addition to the larger e-commerce site that I do in-house SEO I also do SEO for a very tight niche site. It is a product line with which I am extremely familiar. For that site alone Itrack about 250 keywords in SEOMoz...so by all means, yes, expand your targeted keyword list and track them all. I can guarantee you'll find some gems that you've probably never considered.

Also, here's another way to find "high opportunity" keywords. Use Avinash Kaushik's custom reports for tracking keywords based on length of keywords string. You can find more about that here http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/best-downloadable-custom-web-analytics-reports/

Pay attention especially to the performance of long tail versus short tail keywords. Here's a link to a blog post that will, I hope, not only blow your mind, but change your life! Okay a little extreme I know, but my God Avinash Kaushik isuch a freaking genius!

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/advanced-analytics-visitor-segments-engagement-social-media-search-long-tail/