Site Structure Question

[Carlos-R]

Hi All,

Got a question about site structure, I currently have a website where everything is hosted on the root of the domain. See example below:

site.com/men

site.com/men-shorts

site.com/men-shorts-[product name]

I want to change the structure to site.com/men/shorts/[product-name]

I have asked a couple of SEOs and some agree with me that the structure needs to be changed and some say that as long as I dictate the structure with internal links and breadcrumbs the URL structure doesn't matter...

What do you guys think?

Many thanks,

Carlos

[EGOL]

some say that as long as I dictate the structure with internal links and breadcrumbs the URL structure doesn't matter...

This what I would say.

Even if I am wrong the loss of a small amount of power through the redirects needed to change your structure could be greater than the tiny optimization gain (if any) from  changing the URL.

Save yourself the work.

[CleverPhD]

The only other thing to consider is how you want to parse all this out in Analytics.  If you were to go to the folder structure, it may be easier to parse things out as you can look at a folder by folder basis.  GA automatically creates reports based on a folder (aka slash) hierarchy.   You would not have that with the dashes.

Also, you can setup regexp to parse on the slashes to setup some really cool filters and advanced segments.   You may get the same thing with your dashes as long as you are consistent with how you use the dashes.  So the first slot is always gender, the second slot is always style and the the last is product name.

I am with EGOL that it may be a moo point, but wanted to put in another variable for your to consider in what works best for you.

Cheers