3

Assuming that I offer very few services and/or products. Is, from SEO benefit point of view, it better to construct URL (http probably doesn't matter) such as:

www.mysite.com/services/nameofservice or www.mysite.com/nameofservice

Another example:

www.mysite.com/products/nameofproduct or www.mysite.com/nameofproduct

A bit different question (second one, first is above): if I offered (on the same website) very few services (up to 3) and a bit more of products (up to 20, all from clickbank or commission junction), would be your answer the same? I think (but need someone to confirm) in that case I would have to go in services area for www.mysite.com/nameofservice and in products area www.mysite.com/products/nameofproduct

1 Answer 1

1

Your first examples are what I would use if I had more then one product or service. Having a hierarchy in your URLs and site structure is a great way to organize your website both for you and the search engines.

For example:

            home page
            |       |
            |       |
     products       services     
     |   |  |        |     |
    |    |   |       |      |   
   |     |    |      |       |
 Prod1 Prod2 Prod3  Serv1   Serv2

You can see that the home page is at the top of the hierarchy. This makes sense because it is the portal to the rest of your website. The products and services pages are up next as they are the portal to the individual products and services. Lastly you have the individual product and services pages.

By doing it this way you essentially establish an SEO hierarchy through internal linking. The pages higher up in the hierarchy are going to be given more weight then the pages lower in the hierarchy. This is good because the pages higher up in your hierarchy are going to be competing for more general search phrases while your deeper pages will be competing for less competitive search phrases (a specific product name, a specific service). This essentially is like your inner pages, who don't need as much help to rank well, giving your higher pages, which do need more help to rank well, a boost.

            home page
            |       |
            |       |
     widgets       services     
     |   |  |        |     |
    |    |   |       |      |   
   |     |    |      |       |
 blue green red   clapping  shimmying 

In the example above you can see that the widget and services pages are very general categories (a lot of competition) and the actual products and services pages themselves (blue, green, slapping) have very specific content (less competition).

Additionally, the hierarchy is clearly represented in your URLs which helps users understand your site better. Since usability is a big part of SEO, it also helps the search engines understand your pages better. (This is very similar to PageRank sculpting which is also achieved by organizing your site this way).

6
  • John Code so does that mean I should use: www.mysite.com/services/nameofservice and www.mysite.com/products/nameofproduct with no matter how many services and products do I offer? But you said: "The pages higher up in the hierarchy are going to be given more weight then the pages lower in the hierarchy. " This sentence makes me think I should do the opposite so: www.mysite.com/nameofservice and www.mysite.com/nameofproduct Does it even matter how many products and services do I offer when deciding for such urls?
    – Andrew01
    Commented Oct 6, 2011 at 14:51
  • I've expanded my answer to better address your question.
    – John Conde
    Commented Oct 6, 2011 at 14:55
  • John ok thank you. This gives me a clear answer I need to add the category page to the URL (services/nameofservice and products/nameofproduct) with no matter how many products and services do I offer. However also the actual "name of service" can be very competitive keyword but if you try harder (better onsite seo and higher quality of inbound links) there is probably no need to make another subcategory below "name of service". This exact same hierarchy I had in mind but I was in doubts how would number of services & products depend on actual URL structure. I see now it (next comment)
    – Andrew01
    Commented Oct 6, 2011 at 15:22
  • (previouns comment) doesn't. In theory (and also practice), when it comes to internal links, the general seo rule is to have internal link pointing from home page to category page and from category page to actual names of products and service (third horizontal row in your pictures). But what about the opposite direction? Should I internal link from those names of products/services to the category or should I link directly to homepage?
    – Andrew01
    Commented Oct 6, 2011 at 15:23
  • Generally speaking (meaning this isn't absolute as there are good reasons to break this such as featuring a product or service on the home page and linking to the deep inner page about it), pages should be linking to pages one level up and one level down of them. Exceptions to this include navigation bars and breadcrumbs (but they actually help the hierarchy as they link to pages above them that are related to them).
    – John Conde
    Commented Oct 6, 2011 at 16:01

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.