URL Structure Question

[aactive]

We are building a job board website that will have a decent amount of "career resources" type content and want to make sure we set up our url structure correctly.  After researching on Google and here I have an idea how to structure it but would like some insight if we are on the right track.  We are using Wordpress for the content part of our website.  We will have about 5 content categories (like resume-tips, job-interviews, job-search etc.)

The two options we are considering;

www.domain.com/career-resources/index.html  As content start page

www.domain.com/career-resources/resume-tips/index.html  category start page

www.domain.com/career-resources/resume-tips/top-5-resume-mistakes.html  article name

is the /career-resources/ folder really needed or can we go something like;

www.domain.com/career-resources/index.html  As content start page

www.domain.com/resume-tips/index.html  category start page

www.domain.com/resume-tips/top-5-resume-mistakes.html  article name

Are we on the right track... and is one way better for SEO that the other?

Thanks!

Shaun

[CleverPhD]

I think that either way you will probably be ok, but I would lean toward removing the /career-resources/ folder as it is probably not needed.  I think you could just have a .com/career-resources.html as your index page and the link to all to topic folders from there.   Anytime, you can have a file that is closer to the root, that is an indicator of the importance of the URL and so that helps as well.   Also, I would not mess with index.html file names, just end the folder in a slash e.g. .com/resume-tips/      A lack of a page name in a folder is the index page.  Nobody goes to google.com/index.html or moz.com/index.html   same thing with folders.

[WhoWuddaThunk]

You want to properly group your content together.  So, if the section of your website is "Career Resources," and all of these categories are in that section, then I would use the first URL structure.  It makes internal linking between these pages seem more natural, since they are in the same "silo."

The other benefit of the first style is if you used breadcrumbs.  By having no unifying sub-directory, as in the second URL structure, you are unable to push all the authority to a single page, which then pushes authority back down into specific categories.  Well, you still could, but your URL structure would contradict your breadcrumbs, and it would probably be harder to program the website to naturally build breadcrumbs.

[aactive]

Thanks for tip on the ending folders with "/".  We are trying to get the structure correct right from the start and this helps.

[CleverPhD]

One other reason I like ending in slashes. GA and other software that crawls your site and then produces reports will look at the slash and then include that URL as the home page with everything else under it in the same reports.

Some developers like to leave off the slash and just have the index page as  .com/resume-tips

You then get people who will naturally add the slash at the end in links, or you have a footer where you add the slash when you did not mean to and then you have a duplicate content issue.

I like to end with the slash and just be consistent.  Seems like most reports "expect" that convention and so it just will help down the road.

[aactive]

Thanks for your input Cody and I agree about the bread crumbs benefits.  Do you think there is any SEO "loss" by using the /career-resources/ folder before the the category folders as in?

"www.domain.com/career-resources/resume-tips/article

vs

"www.domain.com/resume-tips/article

I've read that being closer to the root domain is better.

Shaun