Need Some Quality Vs. Quantity SEO Advice
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We have a gallery here with our main categories of patches. https://www.stadriemblems.com/gallery/
If you click on one, say Fire Patches, you'll be taken to a page of just fire patches. https://www.stadriemblems.com/fire-patches/
But here's the kicker: If you notice of the fire patch page, there are also sub-categories to that. So if you click on say, Fire Rescue, you get taken one level deeper. https://www.stadriemblems.com/fire-patches/fire-rescue-patches/
I'm redoing this entire site (a project over five years overdue), and I'm wondering if it's really worth it to keep these three-level deep sub pages. I originally created them with long tail SEO in mind, making us be the only ones who come up when people search for very specific patches. But it's a big undertaking to redo all of them, and are they really adding any value?
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Are these pages pulling in any traffic? Can you trace that traffic through the shopping cart?
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Well, this has brought to my attention that somehow the CMS has neglected adding the analytics code to those pages, probably because they're in a sub folder, so this is a bigger shot in the dark than I thought.
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If it is possible to add the analytics code to the pages, I would do that and let it run for a couple months. Then you can make the decision with full data.
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I have to make this decision within the week. I guess I can't ask people to advise me when I have no data to give them.
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I'm leaning toward quality over quantity. Looking at those individual pages, they don't seem to be offering much in the way of unique content.
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It is not at all uncommon to have the category taxonomy run three levels deep like this.
What page should I land on if I search for "Volunteer Firefighter Patches"? If it's /fire-patches/ you may have trouble targeting "Volunteer" while also targeting Ambulance, Hazmat...
I think pages specifically targeting topics like "EMS Patches" are necessary for this site and would not recommend removing them.
While you're rethinking the taxonomy though, I would change /fire-patches/ to /first-responders/ because at the moment the site has EMS and Ambulance under "Fire". Really, all of these professionals are "First Responders". Then /first-responders/fire-patches/ may even continue another level deep, such as /first-responders/fire-patches/volunteer/ .