Ecommerce product URLs & flat architecture?

[GregDixson]

Hey Mozzers,

I'm optimizing a small ecommerce site. The site URL directory structure seems all good & logical, BUT should I try for a flatter architecture - so that the individual products are at top level after the domain name in URLs?

e.g.
www.domain.com/first-item/
www.domain.com/second-item/
etc. etc.

My current setup (I'm using the Woocommerce plugin in Wordpress):

www.domain.com/shop/ (main shop page)
www.domain.com/shop/category-name-1/
www.domain.com/shop/category-name-2/
www.domain.com/shop/category-name-3/

with products appearing as:
www.domain.com/product/first-item/
www.domain.com/product/second-item/
etc.

I've researched some big brand ecommerce sites and most seem to be domain.com/amazing-product/ even if the product itself is many categories or sub-categories down. i.e. Homepage > Home & Furniture > Furniture > Living Room Furniture > Coffee Tables

As I say the information architecture makes sense from a user point of view, but I'm guessing the individual products would stand more chance of ranking if directly following the domain name? Woocommerce although flexible doesn't seem to do this out-of-the-box, so please some advice before I go on a hacking and URL rewriting mission!

Thanks

[BrightHealth]

How many products do you currently have?

[tomhall90]

Hi Greg,

The URL structure for me has always worked best WITH the categories in the URL. In the UK, my company ranks number 1 for "disco speakers". This could be down to the fact that our URL's APPEAK somewhat long, but in fact help us gain much more traffic than it would if we didn't include the categories.

For example, this is for our active PA speakers category:

http://www.electromarket.co.uk/speakers-audio-equipment/dj-pa-speakers/active-powered-pa-speakers/

It does appear rather long, particularly as there will be a product code after that URL for the actual product page.

But what works well for us, is to keep the URL structure like this on the website (So if you click department >> Categories >> sub categories >> product) but allow people to navigate to the website using just the product code in the url. So http://www.electromarket.co.uk/speakers-audio-equipment/dj-pa-speakers/active-powered-pa-speakers/PRODUCTCODE just becomes http://www.electromarket.co.uk/PRODUCTCODE.

But yes, in my opinion, keeping the categories in the URL like a sort of "breadcrumb" has always worked best for us and we're using Magento Enterprise.

Hope this is of some help!

Tom

[GregDixson]

not many... about twenty.

[GregDixson]

Hi Tom, thanks very much for your answer and posting your store links.. actually you're not a million miles away from my Essex home.. small world huh!

Yes I certainly am a fan of the breadcrumb drilling down and organising by category, and only started thinking differently after watching an old WBF with Rand talking about flat architecture http://vimeo.com/3873783 , (and I think there may have been another with Dr. Pete too). Then I started looking at the big UK stores like M&S, John Lewis, etc. and saw that they use the flat architecture - with individual products directly after the domain name, despite being many categories down: eg. http://www.johnlewis.com/reiss-rathjen-passport-holder/p231880395?colour=Khaki (which ranks #1 for "reiss rathjen passport holder").

It's very interesting to see the URL structure on your site, which is really well organised.. and I like the idea of the short URL by cat no. which must be is handy for customers. Yet I guess you're not trying to actively rank for 'product numbers', and if someone searches for the 'product name' you can "sometimes" be outranked by the competitor's use in URL: e.g. search for "Proel Rubber Microphone Holder 22mm - 26mm" and amazon wins. However for most you win so kudos to you!

Seeing as the site I'm working on only has a few products in a specific niche, maybe I'm over-thinking it.. however it's in a niche with many competing Exact Match Domain's and keyword-matched URL's, so that's why I'm giving it extra thought.

thanks again for your answer. I'll bookmark your site for my next audio needs too

[tomhall90]

Hi Greg,

Small world indeed!

This is just my opinion, but perhaps these bigger stores may be already ranking so high that the need of a department/category/subcategory url is just not required because the SEO is done perfectly elsewhere, I don't know, just a hunch!

The URL's are definitely something to take into consideration, whether the niche is something completely random like bomber jackets for cats or something, no one wants an ugly looking URL and with so many shopping cart CMS' around these days, it's relatively straight forward to set up a whole manner of URL's. I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about it though.

Also, the Amazon ranked number 1 link for "Proel Rubber Microphone Holder 22mm - 26mm" is actually our Amazon store too! Hehe. Cheeky

Tom

[GregDixson]

Thanks Tom,

Oh that's your Amazon store too, good stuff then!

Haha the niche isn't 'cats in bomber jackets', but may as well be lol! As the niche has many EMD's and matching product URL's I'm paying close attention to the competition in the SERP's. Although, as with many things, testing is probably the best way to find out. I'll see how it goes, with the current structure and if I can only get so far maybe try the 'flatter' approach.

thanks again,

Greg