SEO friendly url strategy...

[Immanuel]

Hi guys i just wanted your expert opinion on keywords in urls. The example i'm giving you is in regards to a ecommerce website:

Option 1: www.example.com/shop/coffee/coffee-beans/brand-coffee-beans-500gr

Option 2: www.example.com/shop/coffee/beans/brand-coffee-beans-500gr

We sell coffee so i'll keep the example relevant 

Does it make a difference on how the keywords are stacked throughout?

Would the search engine combine the two keywords  eg. .../coffee/beans/... or would i be better of having .../coffee/coffee-beans/...  and is there a penalty for having the same phrase more than once in the url?

I hope my question makes sense...

Looking forward to your opinions and ideas!

[AndieF]

Hi Luca,

It doesn't make a difference to your rankings. However Matt Cutts from Google suggests you go for Option 1, as from a usability perspective users tend to prefer it and so it may improve your click-through rates when you are found.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=971qGsTPs8M

[Immanuel]

So basically the search engine won't see the relevance between .../coffee/beans/... but rather .../coffee/coffee-beans/...

If i understand it right from the video? Or i shouldn't worry about it to much as long as it makes sense to users?

[AndieF]

Yeah I think there'll be little-to-no difference. Always put users ahead of Google and you'll come out on top.

Perhaps you could try 5 categories in one convention, 5 in another, measure the click-throughs and then roll forward with the one that works best for you?

[WesleySmits]

Hey Segafredo,

Don't you think these URL's are a little bit long?

There must be a better way to organise your URL structure.
www.domain.com/shop/coffee/beans/brand for example.

You could leave out the second 'coffe-beans' and the 500gr could be an attribute of that product. This way it won't be in the URL. It would make your URL's easier to remember. Makes it look less 'spammy' and just look a lot cleaner.

You would still rank for 'coffee', 'beans' and 'coffee beans'.
Your name is Segafredo so if you are really from the major company Segafredo then the short URL's would be a lot better. A big brand like that would get visitors and links by itself and messy URL's would do your reputation no good.

Hope i was of assistence. If you have any other questions let me know