Keyword Domain URL structure

[nirpan]

Hello all,

We have a domain with one of the primary keyword within the domain itself (audisite) and reading through some of the topics, having a keyword within the domain itself seems to be not as significant as we had assumed. We currently have a URL strucuture ( http://audisite.co.uk/new-audi/a4 ) which we were thinking of modifying to something like audisite.co.uk/a4 based on the premise that the 'audi' keyword is already in the domain itself.

Also in terms of URL optimization, which of these will be the most effective URL (if the content is exactly the same). Or is my whole approach incorrect to URL optimization fundamentally incorrect?

• /a4
• /new-audi-a4
• /new/audi-a4
• /new-audi/a4
• /new/audi/a4

I will be very grateful for any advice/suggestions/pointers. Thank you very much for your time.

[Kara.Wallace]

Hi Niraj,

Shorter, higher level URLs "typically" perform better in the SERPs.

I personally would probably do either /a4 or /new-audi-a4 or even /audi-a4.

There is a difference between your domain (brand) and the page (product), so I would feel comfortable using the product name "audi" at the page product level, even though it is already in the domain - if that makes sense.

Hope this helps.

Mike

[nirpan]

Hi Mike,

Thank you for the reply. Shorter URLs do make sense.

The second part I got a little confused with. You said "so I would feel comfortable using the product name "audi" at the page product level"; I presume you mean this is in the URL as the whole second paragraph seems like the reason for why I should be doing it?

My only concern of not going with either /a4 or /audi-a4 is because the domain will have both new and used audi. But the option /new-audi-a4 does seem like the best way forward here as I could simply change the new to used.

And if I may, is there anything concrete to use /new-audi-a4 rather than /new-audi/a4. The only reason I can see is that the second URL strucuture would mean the a4 is one level deeper than the first URL structure.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

[Kara.Wallace]

Sure thing.

Yes. I was referring to the URL in the second portion of my original comment.

Right on. I wasn't completely following the reasoning behind "new", so that is why I suggested just /a4 or /audi-a4. After you explanation that you are having new and used, that makes perfect sense.

You are correct. It is another level deep and that makes it appear as though it does not hold as much importance from a structural point of view - that is why I would suggest it being /new-audi-a4 vs /new-audi/a4; however, it all depends on your site structure (although URL naming doesn't have to follow site structure). If you have /new-audi landing page, which has links to different cars, a4, a5, etc. then it would make sense to use the /new-audi and /used-audi format. If your site does not use that type of structure, it may seem confusing to someone who is just looking at the URL.

Does that make sense?

Mike

[nirpan]

Hi Mike,

Thank you once more for taking the time to reply.

Everything you said made sense. Just to clarify if make sure I am getting this correctly I will ask one final question. If I have the landing pages /new-audi and /used-audi with links (or a dynmically generated product listing in the case of used-audi) to the specific model, it would make sense to have a url strucuture like /new-audi/a4 or /used-audi/a4?

But will it be any more advantageous to have the URL as /new-audi-a4, /used-audi-a4 despite having the landing page that points to these models or do you think despite the deeper level in /new-audi/a4 won't be much of an issue as there would be a landing page pointing to each of the new audi model.

I hope I did not confuse you more. And thank you very much for your time. Very grateful for it.

[Kara.Wallace]

No problem.

So, having keywords in your URL is really helpful for SEO, but don't over complicate it and don't stress about it

In the small amount of testing I have done, you probably wouldn't see a huge ranking difference between the different naming conventions as long as they are at the same level. Meaning you'd "probably" have the same ranking for /new-audi/a4 as you would /new/audi-a4.

To answer your question, a flat architecture is awesome to have from a crawler standpoint and from a user standpoint. If you have a landing page /new-audi and a "product" page /new-audi-a4 at the same level, that is great. It is easier for people to remember and share on social vs having it go down another level.

The only time this flat architecture can become a headache is when you have a ton of pages and trying to remember where everything is from a site structure point of view when you are managing things.

Hope this helps.

Mike

[nirpan]

Thank you very much Mike for taking the time to reply. I will take in your suggestion when redoing the structure. Much more clearer now.

[Kara.Wallace]

No problem.

Glad to help.

Mike