How To Organise my URLS - Which is Optimal?

[Sandicliffe]

Hi all,

I am currently in the process of re-writing my companies website URL structure. Compared to the way the website is structured at the minute, there's going to be a lot more URL's as the previous structure has missed out on a lot of search avenues that i intend to include within the rebuild.

one of my issues is basically deciding under which category certain URL's come under, I can think of reasons for both sides but can't quite decide on which is optimal. My company is an automotive/car dealer so we sell cars for certain manufactures as well as offering a number of other services.

what I'm curious about is what makes more sense in terms of the category that comes first in the URL. Here's what I am torn between;

/(car manufacturer)/servicing

OR

/servicing/(car-manufacturer)

To give you some more info that might influence the decision;

• In terms of generic keyword targeting, the majority would search in the order of '(car manufacturer) service' as opposed to 'service for (car manufacturer)'.

• Currently on our site, the sections /(manufacturer) are some of the most authoritative pages that we have on the website, but we've done very little work on /service in the past. For me, this would suggest that naturally the pages flowing from that URL would get an advantage in terms of authority/ranking.

With either URL structure, the URL's are eventually going to cross paths - I just need to decide which one is best and should therefore feature first.

Hopefully this is somewhat clear. I'd appreciate any suggestions or if you don't quite understand what I'm asking for then general URL advice is also appreciated.

Many thanks

Sam

[RyanPurkey]

Hi Sam. Going with folder structure similar to your navigation can always help, so / is the home page /service/ is the service section, and /service/(car-manufacturer) for when a user is in a specific Make section. I wouldn't worry too much about word order in URLs as you'll have plenty of other signals working towards your rankings. Usually a strong page ranks for both orders interchangeably. Cheers!

[Sandicliffe]

Thanks Ryan.

So essentially, if the folder structure is solid then you wouldn't be too concerned about the order beyond this? Obviously so long as the URL's are as neat and concise as they could be.

Sam

[RyanPurkey]

Right. Did you see Rand's latest post on URL structure? Solid overview there: http://moz.com/blog/15-seo-best-practices-for-structuring-urls. Cheers!