Welcome to the Q&A Forum

PS here's an update I ran it out of California as well

http://newrelic.com/synthetics_previews/7b161fb0c45f0132e6e800505682a6e4
446 msCONNECT305 msSSL1 msSEND490 msWAIT3 msRECEIVE938 msTIME TO FIRST BYTE

You can use anything below to automatically redirect a 404 to a 301

https://wordpress.org/plugins/redirection/

https://wordpress.org/plugins/404-redirector/

https://wordpress.org/plugins/seo-redirection/

https://wordpress.org/plugins/quick-pagepost-redirect-plugin/

https://wordpress.org/plugins/404-to-301/

https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/301-1

people that get hung up on keywords are a pain but you should be forthright and tell them yes they will most likely see a drop in traffic for a minimum of 3 to 4 months.

Use this reference

https://www.candidsky.com/blog/the-seo-2015-guide-to-website-migration/

sincerely,

Tom

/product.php?id=3624  In in the example you have given it shows a question mark which means you are hopefully not using that URL as your canonical.

/product/shoes/air-jordans/ vs  /product.php?id=3624

Would tell a customer

more about what they are actually clicking on.

Remember that you have given an example of “?” “<element id="id”>”

Please use the absolute canonical and do not change-year-old links

Hey Tony and Alex,

Thumbs up Alex did an excellent job of explaining what I was trying to get across. I apologize I did not have much time when I replied.

Tony I agree with everything Alex has said I would award him best answer.

Sincerely,

Tom

Tony on the URL I referenced below there is a clear breadcrumb trail to the product. If you created URLs  that used a subfolder for the category and then an additional subfolder for the product new for instance / The used a subfolder for the category and then an additional subfolder for the product new for instance

• www.threeding.com/antiques-historical/gravestone/
• www.threeding.com/antiques-historical/early-middle-ages/gravestone/

HOME  ANTIQUES & HISTORICAL  EARLY MIDDLE AGES  GRAVESTONE

As Alex said anytime you change your URL structure or your site structure you are going to deal with a lot of complications. Including loss of traction in the search engine's. There are methods of doing it where you go about making small changes as you work.

Let me know if this is something you're considering doing it so I'll give you more information on it and I   if you want.

All the best, Tom

www.threeding.com/

Hi Andy,

No worries man sorry not trying to be confusing.

Well, I'm assuming you already have the main domain?

if I already have a site architecture which looks like a pyramid including my top keywords as my navigation then I move down through categories trying not to go deeper than three clicks from the homepage.

Like: http://i.imgur.com/Kew1e64.png

So let's say your domain name is example.com I want to create a landing page for dishwashers specifically ones made by Miele

I would create the URL example.com/dishwashers/miele

https://www.distilled.net/blog/seo/why-you-should-map-out-your-sites-information-architecture/

WordPress:

https://yoast.com/site-structure-the-ultimate-guide/

https://www.slideshare.net/dohertyjf/id2013-optimizing-your-websites-architecture-for-seo

https://builtvisible.com/solving-site-architecture-issues/

See: http://i.imgur.com/EA8gfEe.gif

I hope this makes sense if you have any questions please feel free to ask if you already have the architecture in place keep it in place if you do not map it like the photographs.

Hope this helps,

Tom

Ni9JxlQ.gif Kew1e64.png

It’s in the header the navigation will shows up Frist google can understand that part.

let me take a good look I will send you a free DeepCrawl and look at the content

Can you show me what you're being category pages look like now? Or describe them are they just products?

fewer clicks to reach products/ or any page From the homepage has a very strong correlation with ranking.

"with sub-categories remaining"  you mean you're going to keep the category pages anyway?

the new algorithm update if it hurt your website could have done so for many reasons that have nothing to do with what you're discussing. If you wouldn't mind could you share the domain with us?

If you feel uncomfortable doing that will give you an email you can send it to.

Sincerely,

Tom

Hi

Yes, I see what you're saying now. I like those subcategories here.  You are saying that you might fill this the text which would definitely give Google some more information on the products.

I don't know how you would make the products any closer to the homepage that way?

I would simply add an additional product overview page that is mostly text and links to the subcategory page.

These types of things are never easy because you have a very nice site I would to know a lot more about what's going on with it if I can try to help you with the algorithm update how much traffic have you lost?

https://bseo.dev/sOX1B4

I would keep the age that you currently have because it does showcase the current products very well and add an additional main category page with content.

https://bseo.dev/T7A5wJ

I don't see the harm in doing it to a handful of categories as an experiment. Please keep in mind the closer to the homepage the cliques are the better. And your content should be informational and transactional meaning you're trying to sell on the product pages and product category pages and maybe use a blog for informational content which would allow people who are engaged like myself & planning a wedding the opportunity to learn everything I need to know about the big event. I would also partner with churches and other venues to make sure that the backlinks profile is relevant to your industry.

I will say this part is very confusing because it bears the same name

this is appropriately named https://bseo.dev/RjS2Hq

this is a duplicate and does not work properly.

https://bseo.dev/wHGpxy

I can give you an audit of your website if you'd like me to?

My information is right here

https://moz.com/users/view/383525

respectfully,

Tom

I would definitely take a handful and make them the main category pages that you suggested, in the beginning, we really don't have anything to lose if you keep the subcategories however I would like to map out the site it would make it a lot clearer

I would have to see the website in order to tell you rather or not I think having the drop-down would be beneficial. Also whether your menu is made of Java or HTML in my opinion still matters.

Sometimes having a drop-down menu can be beneficial if it's siloed correctly would you be opposed to posting the site?

Like Martijn said it depends on a lot of on-site structure

Hope I have been somehow helpful,

Tom