How to arrange taxonomies when many mean the same thing?

[abuntlysupport]

Hello

I'm trying to figure out the category/taxonomy structure for my website which will be selling "Colored Contact Lenses"

I'm a bit confused because, there are several search queries which sort of mean the same thing, for example "Halloween Contacts" are sort of the same thing as "Colored Contacts" people searching for Colored Contacts may potentially be looking for "Natural" styles, however many are looking for crazy styles, aka "Halloween Contacts" or "Crazy Contacts" Crazy contacts and halloween contacts, being the exact same thing just different choice of words from the searcher.

So I'm trying to think of what to do for categories/link structure... I believe i should start with a primary category .com/colored-contacts/ then .com/colored-contacts/halloween-contacts/

But what about crazy contacts? Should I keep going, .com/colored-contacts/crazy-contacts/ which will have the exact same products listed?

I'm kind if going crazy thinking about this lol, any thoughts and advice would be highly appreciated.

Thank you!

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi,

There are many ways to do this depending on your site and structure.

Are you doing this to try and get the additional phrases into Google, or for usability once someone lands on your site? If you are doing it for Google, you will want to avoid duplication of pages based on naming / keyword conventions and try not to create lots of pages that only have the basics to differentiate them.

-Andy

[impactzoneco]

I agree with Andy, except that I would set the categories and the navigation bar for usability over pleasing the search engines. Blasphemy, I know on an SEO Q&A forum. Seriously, though, your #1 goal is to keep it as simple and uncomplicated as possible for users to find your products. SEO aids that, but it is not the goal in and of itself. The goal is more clients/sales/users.

If you haven't done this already, put your categories/navigation sections on 3x5 cards or sticky notes, and then arrange them on a table or wall. Cross-reference the navigation words you are using with the search terms by which people look for this product to make sure they are user-friendly

What taxonomy works and would make sense to your users in terms of getting to your products the easiest and fastest? Then use that one.

A complicated taxonomy that makes sense to robots but not to people will increase your bounce rates and not your sales. So...go for the users.

-- Jewel