URL Structure

[LMcLaughlin]

Hello,

Within the last few months, my company launched a brand new website for our clients. Unfortunately, the web developers we went through aren't very knowledgeable on SEO practices and as a result, our URL structure is a total mess. I'm looking for some advice on the best way to go about a possible restructure of the URL's or what you suggest I should do from here.

Any advice helps.

Thanks!

Lauren McLaughlin

[donford]

Hello,

There is this post here on Moz which has some great guidance. But to adequately answer your question I wonder if you're using a CMS? If so there maybe a few nice add-ons / modules  to help with this task.

My basic advice would be to:

• Identify the pages top keyword and use it in the url.
• Short URLS are better
• Limit parameters
• Try not to go more than 2 folders deep (ie /computers/accessories/)
• Use Hyphens instead of Underscores
• Avoid Stop Words

I hope this helps,

Don

[DonnaDuncan]

Ouch.

The only thing I'd add to Donford's comments is you're going to want to limit the redirect chain as much as possible when renaming files and folders for a third time. If you can go directly from original folder/file to newly renamed folder/file and skip the interim non-SEO-friendly URLs, that would be best. That said, you're going to have to bear in mind and plan for any newly acquired bookmarks and/or links since the relaunch.