Structuring URLs of profile pages

[mkornbl2]

First of all, I want to thank everyone for the feedback that I received on the first question. My next question has to do with the URL structure of personal trainer profiles pages on www.rightfitpersonaltraining.com. Currently, the structure of each trainer profile page is "www.rightfitpersonaltraining.com/personal-trainers/trainer/" and at the end I manually add the trainer's "city-firstname-lastinitial".

Would it be to my benefit to have the developers change the structure so that the trainer profile URLs are "www.rightfitpersonaltraining.com/city-personal-trainers/trainername"? That way, each trainer profile would link directly to the trainer's city page as opposed to the general "personal-trainers" page. I don't mind paying a little extra to go back into the site to make these changes, as I think they would benefit the search ranking for each city page.

[Lumina]

I'd suggest doing that, yes. Not only would it be more beneficial to users to have information based on their location (as most people would search for trainers near them, not just search for trainers and the sort the data by location) - it's also good for SEO to have location-specific urls and such. That's assuming that you're both concerned about local search, and are making efforts in that area already.

Do keep in mind, however, that the rest of your site (both in terms of structure and content) should reflect this change. Not just links, but the way they're presented, and possibly even the order by which you present content on base pages. Furthermore, if you go this route, be sure to take advantage of locale-based terms (including name, NAP, etc.)

[mkornbl2]

Thanks so much for the response, Bryan.

Yes, if I make any change, I will make the changes consistent throughout the entire site.

[MiriamEllis]

Yes, I like this URL structure:

www.rightfitpersonaltraining.com/city-personal-trainers/trainername

It's very user-friendly and clear, and would contain good keywords both for the service and the name or the trainer. Be sure inbound links get cleaned up, as well as internal ones, if you make this change

[mkornbl2]

Thanks, Miriam!

What exactly do you mean when you suggest that my internal and inbound links get cleaned up?

[MiriamEllis]

You're welcome!

If you currently have internal links in your website or inbound links from 3rd party sources linking to the original URLs, you'll want to:

a) be sure all menus, references, etc. inside the website get updated to the new links

b) reach out to any 3rd party sites linking to these original URLs to ask if they can update the links they have to the new URLs

Hope this helps!

[mkornbl2]

Absolutely. Thanks again, Miriam.