URL Keyword Structure and Importance

[paragongroup]

Hey Guys,

I've done quite a bit of research on this but still can't decide what the correct answer is, so was hoping the Moz community might be able to give some clarification.

Say I have a URL **www.yourdomain.com/product/domain-names **is there any benefit in changing my site's backend structure (a relatively lengthly process) so the URL can read **www.yourdomain.com/domain-names **without the 'product' slug?

I understand keywords in the URL can have a small impact on SEO, but does the positioning to this degree play any part?

Any advice would be great.
Cheers.

[Devanur-Rafi]

Hi Chris,

Though by dropping, 'product' slug from the URL might not have a great impact (positively) from an SEO standpoint and as the target page is moves a level closer to the root domain by doing so, and this can bring in a little positive effect if not none.

We did something similar in the past and this has been our experience:

We had a URL structure like: example.com/category/product-page

We did an experiment and dropped the category folder. After few weeks, there was a drop in traffic through searches like, 'category product name', but there was very little increase in the traffic that came through product name searches. Overall, we felt that the effort involved did no justify the change it brought in.

Those were my two cents. So its up to you to decide if you really want to go ahead considering the kind of effort involved. Hope our other friends here will add their valuable insights here.

Best,

Devanur Rafi.

[AymanH]

Rafi is right. It's recommended to be closer in the url domain. But as the difference will not be huge it's really up to you.

If you have too many changes (coding, indexing, 301, etc.) it may not be justified. Otherwise give it a try it should not be bad !

[RobMay]

I have worked on a few sites with issues exactly like this (Drupal, Joomla, custom based CMS), with lengthy periods of time since the changes took effect at the search level. Overall, we did see increases in traffic related to <kw>related organic traffic. My input, is although it's a lengthy process, the benefits outweigh the length of time or complexity to implement.</kw>

Shortening the URL, will increase the <kw>relation to product and brand. It also opens up doors for later expansion if needed, as you want to try to minimize the URL's length. Getting rid of that slug folder will save you character space at later points in site development, if you choose to go another level deep in URL string/folder.</kw>

Devanus is right in most likely losing some related searches to people searching for 'category product name', but in your life an experience, how many times have you actually searched for that yourself? A good thing to do would also run by your analytic's and keyword metrics from organic traffic and determine the potential loss of any traffic related to direct 'category' related product searches.

Just my 2 cents Everyone has different experiences when implementing changes like this, and it may not all be the same across the board.

Good luck. Cheers!

[paragongroup]

Thanks for clarifying guys; some useful info there

I think I might test with a couple of pages/categories and see what difference it makes. If it's noticeable I will undertake the task of updating all my templates to work without that first slug.

Cheers