URL categorization / subfolders

[Horizon]

Hi Mozzers,

We're currently in the process of a website redesign with new CMS and have the opportunity to change URL and structure. I would love some opinions as to what the best practise will be.

A quick prerequisite, the website is entirely about France. French property, living, holidays, forum - everything. Therefore, we're unsure of the usage of the word France/French.

Presently, we're running Classic ASP which allows for one subfolder then dynamic article ID. In my examples, I will take our activity holidays URL. At present this is /france-activity-holidays/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=12345. We know that DisplayArticle.asp?ID=12345 will simply become [article-title], however, its the preceding subfolders I would like some help with.

Here are our thoughts on the options available. Can you please vote as to which you think is the best?

1. /france-activity-holidays/ (one subfolder per category, as at present)
2. /france/holidays/activity/  (always have a first subfolder with the word france)
3. /holidays-to-france/activity-holidays/ (france in the primary subfolder)
4. /holidays/activity-holidays-france/ (france in the secondary subfolder)
5. /holidays/activity/ (because the whole website is about France, it is redundant to have /france/)
6. /French-holidays/activity/

My gut feeling is either number 2 or 5. Concise, good for UX, OK for SEO. However, there is very little information around that is relevant to our sector.

Thanks in advance!

Matt

[mosquitohawk]

I like #5 for the reasons you've stated.  Also keywords in the URI string aren't as strong a ranking factor (in my opinion) as they used to be.  My 2 cents.