Suggested url structure for hierarchical data

[seo-cat]

For an existing web site we are developing a local info web site section where each area would get a review and information about local bars and restaurants.

The site manages areas in the following hierarchy:

Country > Broader region > Perfecture > Municipality > Neighborhood

e.g. Italy > Northern Italy > Lombardia > Milano > Center

Local Info pages would exist for all the above levels

so you could have a page for Italy as a whole, a page for Lombardia, and a separate page for the Center of Milano.

On certain countries there are many synonyms especially in the Neighborhood level but also a few in the Municipality level.

We would like to build a generic SEF url structure/pattern that would be able to represent the above and be as short as possible for the purpose of SEO.

1. the obvious solution would be to incorporate the unique identifier of

e.g.

www.example.com/local-info/Italy-10
www.example.com/local-info/Milano-12363
www.example.com/local-info/Center-789172

but this does not represent the hierarchy and does not include the interesting keyword of e.g. Milano when looking at the neighborhood level

2. Another option would be to include all levels

e.g.

www.example.com/local-info/Italy/Northern-Italy/Lombardia
www.example.com/local-info/Italy/Northern-Italy/Lombardia/Milano
www.example.com/local-info/Italy/Northern-Italy/Lombardia/Milano/Center

But this would end up with large URLs

3. I am thinking of another solution which would include the current level and its parent at any page.  Not capturing the hierarchy very well but at least it includes the parent name for richer keywords in the url itself.

www.example.com/local-info/Northern-Italy/Lombardia
www.example.com/local-info/Lombardia/Milano
www.example.com/local-info/Milano/Center

4. Or a hybrid where the first levels are always there and the rest are concatenated on a single segment

www.example.com/local-info/Italy/Northern-Italy/Lombardia
www.example.com/local-info/Italy/Northern-Italy/Lombardia-Milano
www.example.com/local-info/Italy/Northern-Italy/Lombardia-Milano-Center

any thoughts?

thanks in advance

[Tompt]

Is the site aimed locally or globally? The only reason I ask is because it will affect the keywords you are trying to hit, and that's really what you need to bear in mind, the main keywords should be in the URL, and the rest can likely be cut.

Also how attached are you to /local-info/ it's not particularly descriptive, and if you could change it to /italy-info/ or simply /restaurants/ that cuts an entire level off the string.

I'm in the UK and if I was searching for the content you've described I'd probably just type "restaurants in central milan", Americans would probably use something more like "restaurants in milan italy" which would indicate URLs along the lines of:

www.example.com/restaurants/italy/milan/

www.example.com/restaurants/italy/milan-central

Neither would really think about putting Northern Italy nor Lombardia because they are much broader. You could still account for those just by adding them on the same level despite the hierarchical discrepancy.

www.example.com/restaurants/italy/lombardia/

www.example.com/restaurants/italy/northern-italy/

If you're catering to Italians you could just cut things down to:

www.example.com/restaurants/lombardia/milano/

They aren't going to specify Italy or Northern Italy as part of their searches.

So basically think about what your audience will search for and include those items in the URL, it doesn't have to make absolute hierarchical sense so long as it makes sense to your customers.