Data Structure, Indexing and Canonicals
-
I was wondering if anyone would be able to share some data structure/indexing best practices. We have a site that has pages designed to display National/State/City level data - all pages have slight variations in the data and descriptions - but we're seeing google index some of the city level data for national level keywords.
the URL structure is www.mysite.com/Country/State/City/Topic.html
For example - if the query was "what is the price of beans?" we're seeing Google pick up localized versions - i.e. mysite.com/US/CA/San_Francisco/price-of-beans.html - when it should be picking up mysite.com/US/price-of-beans.html
I've toyed with the idea of using the national level page as the canonical for the state/city pages - but I don't want to hurt state/city level keywords.
Because some of the pages have only slight variances - we are also seeing a lot of soft 404 errors - We're assuming that Google is seeing the pages as duplicates even though the content is different.
Any insight/suggestions are appreciated.
-
Of course anytime. If you would like to give me other examples for a look at the site I can give you a lot more information.
Glad to be of help!
Tom
-
Thank You Tom! This is a lot of information to digest - I will review and let you know if I have any additional questions - but I wanted to thank you for your prompt response!
-
I have underlined and italicized your questions and answer them the best I can this hour. I also gave you all references and I hope you will start using topic clusters and pillar pages or hub pages there are a few words these. Below I have outlined what I would do with the URL structure remember simple as possible.
Please let me know if you have any questions I know the information I'm giving you is a lot. I want to answer your question thoroughly and I know if you go through this you will have a much better understanding.
You want to create relevancy and make sure you're not going to deep or more than three clicks away from the homepage. You can also use tools like deep crawl to tell you the deep rank this is a score that is provided to show you the power of your internal links. You can use Oncrawls INscore to do the same thing.
Saving you a lot of the work described in the information below. At the end of the day, you want to build a pillar page and have topic clusters
- https://www.distilled.net/difference-between-url-structure-and-information-architecture/
- https://www.slideshare.net/dohertyjf/id2013-optimizing-your-websites-architecture-for-seo
- https://www.getcredo.com/talk-website-architecture-seo/
- https://mza.seotoolninja.com/blog/15-seo-best-practices-for-structuring-urls
- https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/76329?hl=en&ref_topic=4617741
- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/pillar-page-examples
"National/State/City level data - all pages have slight variations in the data and descriptions - but we're seeing Google index some of the city level data for national level keywords".
Are you going after more than one country?
_www.mysite.com/Country/State/City/Topic.html _ ( do not use capitals when making URLs. It makes a separate URL entirely)
You do not to the country unless you are using hreflang? remember if you're not you can determine the country you want to target in Google search console the old version these are the instructions https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6059209?hl=en
-
remember mobile first means shorter URLs
-
hostname/2 letter country or language/state (abbreviation)/city
-
ideally/category = tx or (the state of Texas)/city
-
/products/category/sub-category/slug
-
Decisions about URL structures and decisions about the IA of your website both involve questions about grouping and hierarchies of pages. For example:
URL: should the path of an individual product be:
/product-slug
/products/slug
/products/category/slug
/products/category/sub-category/slug -
IA: how should we group our product pages and link between them:
Should there be a link “up” to the parent category?
How many “levels” of sub-category page types should there be?
How do we link between sibling products in the same (sub-)category?
How many products can we reach in (e.g.) 3 clicks from the homepage? -
then as you add more things to the city of Dallas you can keep them in a pillar page
the categories to track are:
- Page URL
- Cluster topic
- Subcluster (if applicable)
- Keyword to rank for
- Is it linked to the pillar page? (Y/N)
- Is it relinked (if applicable)? (Y/N)
- Any other other actions needed
- Has the other action been taken yet? (Y/N)
- Links out to pages 1, 2, 3, and/or 4
- Is it also a sub-pillar page (if applicable)? (Y/N)
( if you do not do business outside of the United States do not place the country's name in the URL)
If you are getting good results with the "state/city pages" referenced below and replace their conical tag it will not index
_"I've toyed with the idea of using the national level page as the canonical for the state/city pages - but I don't want to hurt state/city level keywords." _
If you replace the state/city pages with the national level pages and the state/city pages are ranking well they will cease to rank well because you will have no index them.
I will add more to this tomorrow I hope this is better for help,
respectfully
Tom
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Post indexing Issue
I am now currently having the crowing issue for the past 9 months the domain hardly Index post use to make it by using Google inspect tools for faster indexing before it's was announced that Google has temporarily disabled it. post like https://xclusivesongs.com/meet-nigerian-most-awarded-music-artists/ takes up to 6 days before indexing. another issue is that it's one year now I'm still can't believe that my domain is yet to dominate is brand name looks like something is wrong I don't just get it do mean each time I search the name xclusivesongs it keeps showing me like this saying do you mean?" 8vhEn3y
Local Website Optimization | | Gerradino0 -
Google-selected canonical: the homepage?
Hi guys,
Local Website Optimization | | Andreea-M
I checked the product pages on our website with Google Search Console (URL Inspection), and the majority appear as
"URL is not on Google"
Coverage: "Duplicate, submitted URL not selected as canonical", and
Google-selected canonical: the homepage of the website (for all product pages) Our product pages are not identical to the homepage (content-wise), besides the top menu, header and footer, so how could I use the canonical tag in this case? I wouldn't want that the product pages to be seen as duplicates of the homepage. Thanks!0 -
Discourage search engines from indexing this site AFTER a site launch
Hi, I have unticked "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" a few months before the initial release of my website. I don't want to be found by search engines until the official release (still a few months left). Do you think that ticking this box again will harm the website's long-term ranking or have any repercussion on the website? Do you have any additional advice to avoid being temporarily ranked until the official release which won't harm the website in SERPs? Thanks for your answers.
Local Website Optimization | | Juvo0 -
Google still indexing home page even after with 301 - Ecommerce Website
Hi all,
Local Website Optimization | | David1986
We have a 301 redirect problem. Google seems to continue indexing a 301 redirect to our old home page. Even after months. We have a multiple language domain, with subfolders: www.example.com (ex page, now with a redirect to the right locale in the right country) www.example.com/it/home (canonical) www.example.com/en/home (canonical) www.example.com/es/home (canonical) www.example.com/fr/home (canonical) www.example.com/de/home (canonical) We still see the old page (www.example.com) in Google results, with old metadata in English and, just in some countries (i.e.: France), we see the correct result, the "new" homepage, www.example.com/fr/home in first position.
The real problem is that Google is still indexing and showing www.example.com as the "real" and "trusted" URL, even if we set: a 301 redirect the right language for every locale in Google Search Console a canonical tag to the locale url an hreflang tag inside the code a specific sitemap with hreflang tag specified for the new homepages Now our redirect process is the following (Italy example).
www.example.com -->301
www.example.com/en/home --> default version --->301
www.example.com/it/home --> 200 Every online tool, from Moz to Bot simulators see that there is a 301. So Correct. Google Search Console says that: on www.example.com there is a 301 (correct) in the internal link section of Google Search Console the www.example.com is still in first position with 34k links. Many of these links are cominig from property subdomains. Should we change those links inside those third level domain? From www.example.com to www.example.com/LOCALE/home? the www.example.com/LOCALE/home are the real home page, they give 200 code Do you know if there's a way to delete the old home page from Google results since this is 301? Do you think that, even after a 301 redirect, if Google sees too many internal links decides to ignore the 301? Thanks for your help! Davide0 -
Which URL structure should I use?
samhillbands.com/bands/Charlottesville-VA-Wedding-Bands samhillbands.com/wedding/bands/Charlottesville-VA-Bands
Local Website Optimization | | brianvest0 -
Not all structured data not showing up
Hello, I am relatively new to all the different kinds of schema one can use to mark up a site, but not all of the structured data I entered in showing up in the structured data testing tool? Does that mean that Google can't see it either? Thanks so much in advance for your help!
Local Website Optimization | | lfrazer0 -
How best to clean up doorway pages. 301 them or follow no index ?
Hi Mozzers, I have what is classed as doorway pages on my website. These have historically been location specific landing pages for some of our categories but from speaking to a number of different webmasters , then general consensus is that they are not in google guidelines so I will be getting punished by having them. My options are : I can 301 the pages back to their original category pages . This will conserve some link juice to pass back to the respective category page. I can set these as Follow No index. Not sure what will happen here with regards to link value etc. What would be best ?... Some of the pages do currently rank "fairly well" for some of the locations so I am getting traffic from them but I also know I will be getting a algorithmic penalty for having them so how best I clean these up ?. Also , by cleaning up the site structure , would I see any benefit here ? or will I have to wait for a new panda update/ refresh ? I thought the panda refresh won't use a new dataset thanks Pete
Local Website Optimization | | PeteC120 -
Welcome to the Crawling, Indexing, and Ranking sub-forum
Hi guys,We built 2 sites for a client called Kilsaran. 1. Kilsaran.ie targeting Ireland2. Kilsaraninternational.co.uk targeting the ukThe issue is with the uk version of the site is not appearing where it used to be on the SERPs on google.co.uk when you serach for either "Kilsaran" or "Kilsaran International". The Irish version kilsaran.ie now appears first. We have set the GEO targeting for the respective Countries. The .ie site is the original site with the longer History and much more domain authority, links etc There is no manual penalty appearing So my questions is how do I get the English version to appear no.1on google.co.uk? Is it a case of building some local links? or should I implement geo ip detection?Another related question. What is the geo targeting tools function in GWT used for?ThanksRob
Local Website Optimization | | daracreative0