Google & Site Architecture

[BeckyKey]

Hi

I've been reading the following article about Google's quality signals here:

https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/10/10/guide-to-google-ranking-signals-part-6-trust-authority-and-expertise/?utm_source=Search+Engine+Watch&utm_campaign=464594db7c-11_10_2016_NL&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e118661359-464594db7c-17828341

They mention - 3) All your categories should be accessible from the main menu. All your web pages should be labelled with the relevant categories.

Is this every category? We have some say 3 levels deep, and they aren't all in the menu. I'd like them to be, so would be good to make a case for it.

Thank you

[badgergravling]

Hi,

Ideally, you want everything that's important as high up the menu structure as possible without making it too unusable for actual customers.

If it's 3 levels deep, then it's starting to get to the stage where I'd either look to move the category up if it's an important one, or possible merge it with something else that's relevant to be able to get it higher in the menu structure. Ultimately it's about managing your crawl budget and if you're burying something 3+ levels down, it's less likely to be regularly crawled unless it's incredibly popular from external links etc.

Flatter, shallower navigation and menus are always best as long as they're still usable...

[BlueprintMarketing]

Think CRAWL BUDGET

the crawl budget is the number of requests made by Googlebot to your website in a particular period of time. In simple terms, it’s the number of opportunities to present Google the fresh content on your website.

See this to understand

https://www.deepcrawl.com/knowledge/best-practice/optimize-crawl-budget-tips-examples/

If you ever repeat a URL path more than twice, the URL will not be indexed. For example, this URL would not be indexed in Google.

example.com/path/path/path/

Even if the repeated paths are broken up by another unique path, the URL will not be indexed. e.g.

This URL would not be indexed.

example.com/path/path/unique/path/

This is because Google thinks it has hit a URL trap.

URL traps occur most often when a relative link includes the same path as where the page is located. Relative URLs are added to the end of the paths of the URL which contains the link.

For example, if you had a page like example.com/path/page.html, which included a relative link back to itself using “/path/page1.html”, the actual URL of the link is example.com/path/path/page1.html. If this page is returned by the server, it will contain another relative link to “/path/page1.html”, which is actually the URL example.com/path/path/path/page1.html. And so ad infinitum.

See https://www.deepcrawl.com/knowledge/best-practice/never-repeat-pathnames-in-urls-more-than-twice/

Build Your Universal Navigation

1. Identify why visitors come to your site. You probably have a pretty good idea of what people want already, but check your web analytics:
   1. What search terms do visitors use before they get to your site? Keywords used by incoming visitors tell you what your visitors were looking for before they clicked through to your site. Follow up to see which pages they visited - did they find what they were looking for?
   2. If you’re tracking internal site search, what search terms do visitors use once they’re on your site? On average, only 10% of visitors use site search. So, it’s safe to assume that most people only use site search if they have a hard time finding what they want with your navigation. What terms are visitors searching for? Do you have that page? Is it hidden?
   3. What pages on your site get the most traffic? If those are the pages that you want to get the most traffic, keep those in mind as you build your navigational structure to make sure they're easy for visitors to find. If they aren't particularly high conversion pages, what's a similar page that you can steer those visitors to?
   4. What are your top exit pages? If they’re locations or external contact information, that’s probably something a lot of your visitors are looking for. You should include that in your top navigation.

Divide your products/key pages into categories.

1. Usability experts recommend “card sorting”: put your products on cards, lay them out on a flat surface so you can see them all, and cluster similar items together. There are also a few websites out there that will let you sort cards without taking up so much floor space:http://www.optimalworkshop.com/optimalsort.htm andhttp://uxpunk.com/websort/

https://www.distilled.net/blog/seo/site-navigation-for-seo/

Hope this helps,

Tom

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[BeckyKey]

Thank you very much for your replies & advice

Here is an example of our site structure, our URL structure is very simple, nothing sits within a folder.

So if I want to rank this page - http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/personal-protection-equipment-lockers

The structure at present is:

Home > Cupboards & Lockers > (linked from main nav) > Lockers (linked from main nav) > PPE Lockers - Linked from Lockers page not in main nav.

In order to better rank the PPE lockers page (the page does need better onpage optimisation) I was thinking of product additional content, user guide/blogs - linking to the page this way.

My struggle is, I don't have the ability to control the top navigation - it's automatic and won't show links to level 3 pages.

Becky

[BlueprintMarketing]

Becky I am so sorry for the long delay I will reply to you tomorrow by this time

Tom

[BlueprintMarketing]

Let me do a quick audit of this I will get back to you right away sorry about the long wait. When you talking about the inability to change navigation  (level 3) Can I ask is it because you do not have Development or rights or is it a CMS issue?

Tom

[BeckyKey]

Hi

Oh not to worry, there's no rush

It's a development issue, but they are currently reviewing this and we have requested lower levels in the menu structure.