Tips on URL structure for a site re-design

[RyanCrawf1984]

Wanted to know what you would do with regards to urls – in an ideal world how would you structure them?

Keen to know as me and dave are soon to have a meeting about this and were wondering about changing them from the current – http://www.looking4parking.com/airport/gatwick to something like - www.looking4parking.com/gatwick-airport-parking

We will soon have pages for the specific parking types that will be a lot more engaging to users with some really useful content on benefits, features, how a certain type of parking works, images, video etc.

Currently going to a type of parking, such as meet and greet just brings up a dropdown modal – I was thinking of having the url structure looking like this –

www.looking4parking.com/gatwick-airport-meet-and-greet-parking

www.looking4parking.com/gatwick-airport-on-site-parking

www.looking4parking.com/gatwick-airport-park-and-ride

We will then have specific pages for each parking product – in which this product will have unique content built around it – each will have an overview of the product, benefits, features, reviews, images, directions to the car park, find your route and eventually a video on each product

So for example we currently have the product “Jet Parks 2” at Manchester airport – the current url is - http://www.looking4parking.com/airport/manchester/park-and-ride/jetparks-2

I would like to change this now we have the opportunity to refresh the whole system, to something along the lines of **domain/location/product title - **www.looking4parking.com/manchester-airport-parking/jetparks-2 or as we have some similar products at certain airports (mainly where the airport has multiple terminals) we would just change it to the following - www.looking4parking.com/manchester-airport-parking/jetparks-3

What are peoples thoughts/opinions on the above?

[crackingmedia]

Hi Ryan

There's a lot going on here, but from the sound of it, I think you are going the right way with it by not just focussing on the URLs (which are important) but backing it up with good content using various media.

I think the structure you have for the URLs is good too as domain->location->product. All I would say is to be careful on the product part of the URL (alo relating to your page Title tags) that it is a term that people understand and would use. For example, I have no idea what a Jet Park is, but it is possible I have been living in a cave on this and it is an understood term by your target market.

As I said in the paragraph above, make sure your page Title tags are correctly optimised as that is probably more important than the page URLs.

Finally, if you changing URLs, don't forget to create a set of 301 permanent redirects or add to the set for each page address you change and make live. You will get a small loss in current SEO value by using the 301 redirects, but by better optimising which is your reason for doing this you will gain back the ground and more.

I hope that helps,
Peter

[RyanCrawf1984]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the response, it is a rather large discussion point, i have a problem stopping when i start writing.

I agree with your points, and don't worry, not many people know what/who jetparks are? (large airport parking company).

Was a little worried about keyword stuffing with us having parking in our domain name, and then using it a second time when describing "gatwick-airport-parking", and also general over-optimisation penalties.

Thanks for your advice, good to hear it is heading in the right direction.

[Kurt_Steinbrueck]

Ryan,

I don't think having parking in the domain and the page filename is going to get you trouble for keyword stuffing or any other over-optimization penalty...assuming you don't over-optimize the pages when you create the content

BTW - Great answer Peter!

Kurt Steinbrueck
OurChurch.Com

[KempRugeLawGroup]

Ryan,

I don't think you will have a keyword stuffing problem either, and here's why: http://www.shoes.com/en-US/Womens///Athletic+Shoes~Walking/_/Products.aspx I did a super fast check and typed in shoes. shoes.com was number 1. They have shoes twice. Granted, this is not scientific, but I bet if you did some digging, you'd see several companies with high rankings that have the keyword twice.

Best,

Ruben

[RyanCrawf1984]

Hi Ruben,

I have been doing some digging and found similar myself.

I guess as long as the page content isn't stuffed full of keywords and is just good quality content there isn't much to be worrying about.

Thanks for your input.

Ryan

[RyanCrawf1984]

Hi Kurt,

I agree, just wanted to get some feedback before i proposed it to the development team.

Always good to go in that room with some back-up knowledge.

Thanks,

Ryan