Is this structure good?

[Danni]

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[augustos]

Hey, Good question. Your question, is this structure good? Yes... it's. But, you wanna make something good or REALLY good? If i was you, i would like to make something like this: home.com/coats/wool-coats/ home.com/coats/fur-coats/ Add category is important at my opionion... Thanks.

[Hurf]

My experience from an ecommerce prospective is that you would be better adding a Category into your structure, for a couple of reasons:

1. SEO. Adding an category page gives you an opportunity to rank for the broader keyoword COATS,  rather than just having content targeting the more specific keywords, LEATHER COATS etc. The category pages give you an opportunity to add additional pages of content which contain more keyword diversification and some more anchor text - Just don't go too heavy on it and do be sure to add the keyword variations, make the content look natural and importantly, make sure it is of value to your visitors - and it has a natural readable structure, rather than just content designed to satisfy the Search Engines. All too often it is easy to focus on the content from an SEO perspective only, and in doing so neglect the most important aspect - the end user experience. A well thought out Category page will give you many SEO benefits.

Another consideration would be the development of content that can create a foundation for SITEWIDE LINKS. All of the Sitewide links I have gained have been as a result of Category pages/Sections - rather than individual content pages. Of course you can't directly influence whether or not you get Sitewide links, but having the structure in place will not hurt.

2. NAVIGATION/USEABILITY. A Category page, which contains a list of all of the individual product pages also allows your user to get an overview of all of your product variations within a category and can then select a product which is most relevant to their enquiry. You will also have an opportunity to present them with additional options that they might not have previously considered (or been aware of), such as PVC COATS for example.

I also think the Category option gives you scope to really expand upon your product range without having any URL duplication issues (for example) Home.com/leather-coats.html as opposed to Home.com/Mens-Coats/leather-coats.html or similar. A slightly longer URL which contains the targeted keywords helps both the Search Engines and your User.

(If I am looking for shoes for example and I saw www.domain.com/lmens-shoes/casual-eather-shoes.html I would be more inclined to click than if I saw www.domain.com/leather-shoes.html) as I can see from the URL that the page is more relevant to my gender and search enquiry.

Incidentally, I developed (and SEOd) an ecommerce shoe store for a friend and the VAST majority of their business is the result of specific LONG TAIL keyword searches, rather than the BROAD SEARCH keywords, as the searchers who use long tail searches are further down the buying funnel. So a hit for Gold Leather Gladiator Sandals would convert much more than a hit for Womens Sandals as an example.

Youl would also have better control over navigation elements as your product range expands.

Home.Com
Mens Coats
Womens Coats

etc and the individual product pages underneath.

Without this you could end up with a very difficult to navigate structure.

A logical layout will give you control over the content, easier navigation and the opportunity to create pages that target a more diverse range of keywords in a natural way, which will all contribute toward better rankings.

[Theo-NL]

I would personally go for the structure provided by mediAvatar. This one clearly indicates what type of item we're viewing, and enables users to 'chop off' a part of the URL to get to the index page of that particular category.

However, many big boys including for example Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/What-Every-BODY-Saying-Speed-Reading/dp/0061438294/) and My Wedding Favors (http://www.myweddingfavors.com/key.html) have chosen your structure, which of course has clear benefits of its own (such as a far shorter URL).

[Danni]

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[Danni]

Interesting. See that you with your wedding gifts has the exact same structure as I do. You also have site links but not based on categories or products. It would take some effort with 301 redirects and backend stuff to get the approach mentioned by mediAvatar - is it worth it :-)? Does your site do well in SE? And what challenges do you face? I think it is difficult to tell Google about long tail phrases.

Well, just see that we have a small but perhaps important difference: that where you have all your categories (for instance, Favors by Season) to show in the left sidebar always, I have specific pages for each category...

[Theo-NL]

I'm afraid a slight miscommunication has happened. The website MyWeddingFavors isn't mine (I wish!) but was simply an example I used.

That aside, yes, you would have to do some 301 redirects, but I don't see that as a problem if it greatly improves both the user friendliness and the structure of the website as perceived by the search engines.

From what I know that website performs really well in the search engines for both long and short tail keywords, which would indicate that once set up well, both structures can perform good in the search engines.

[Hurf]

A lot of this is determined by the backend of your CMS solution - is it an out of the box ecommerce solution or custom made? Or is it not strictly ecommerce, but wordpress for example? As there are certain limitations to URL structure within many ecommerce packages.

In mechanical terms having Open Categories and Sub Categories in the sidebar can lead to a very long menu, but all options are visible without a click, versus, Closed Categories (which do not display sub-categories until they are clicked (by either expanding or showing sub categories in the main page) can give a neater/shorter menu, but require clicking before the user can determine if they have the right category.

[Hurf]

You don't need to drill down to that level really. You can use filtering within the results to show coats by colour etc.

There are many examples in ecommerce of different URL structure and layout/navigation. It is difficult to categorically state (no pun intended!) which one is the BEST per se, however, if you work this problem backwards - i.e by generating a list of the keywords you want to target for all of your products, and look at the typical searches for these you will end up with some strong indication of where it is best to place emphasis and this may influence your url structure and navigation elements.

As long as useablity isn't overlooked and you create content that naturally allows you to focus on your desired target keywords without trying to create artificial, keyword stuffed content then you should be well on your way.