URL Structure for a local listing site
-
Hi -
We have a site that offers customers with wide range of local businesses information. We have URL structure for those these days like this -
site.com/listings/plumbers/ca/sfo
However here the "listings" doesn't add any value and are confusing for users who want to remember it, hence we decided to make it cleaner. The question here is, which one of the two should we do and why?
or
Any help on this matter would help.
-
I'm working on URL structure for the same business model. Loved your answer Jane
-
Hi there,
Which structure is best depends on the structure of the website from an information architecture point of view more than anything else. For example, do you have a main California page, to which you link to a San Francisco page, on which all the services in SF are listed? Or do you have a landing page for professions such as plumbing, to which you link to different areas, i.e. California and San Francisco?
If California is the parent and SF / plumbing are under that, then /ca/sfo/plumbing would make sense. And vice versa.
I would say, however, that you should only go through the process of 301 redirecting existing URLs if you feel that the site is at a clear disadvantage because of the current URL structure. You can lose a little authority when you 301 one URL to another, and rankings can suffer / fluctuate as a result. Most go back to roughly where they were before, but this is not guaranteed. We generally advise avoiding 301s / URL changes unless it is undeniably necessary.
Cheers,
Jane
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
-
Star rating not showing up in local pack, and knowledge panel pulling in healthgrades
Hello, I have a client that when you Google just their business name a couple of odd things are happening. First off, they show up in the map pack, but it's now showing their review rating. They have 29 reviews, with an average star rating of 4.6, but at first glance, it doesn't look like they have any reviews:
Reviews and Ratings | | ElaineBushey0 -
Not Showing Up On Local?
Hello, I purchased Moz Local for our fitness and performance company, BIM Fitness & Performance, about 6 weeks ago. Compared to the other people in our area, we have the highest DA. We show up 2nd in search but are not showing up on the "map pack" for local. That said, can someone please help me pinpoint why this may be? We've selected several categories that are relevant to search and we can't seem to understand why.
Reviews and Ratings | | scottgray06200 -
Local pack ranking anomaly -- help?
At a bit of a loss on this one... If anyone has any ideas about what's going on or how to tackle this, I'm all ears. One of my clients, an orthodontist, is appearing in the top three organic positions and in the local pack for almost all keywords we're targeting. However, for the keyword "orthodontist" without any location modifiers attached to it, we're appearing in the top three organic results but our Google listing is not appearing in the local pack. The three listings appearing in the local pack are his next-door competitor, one practice that closed almost a year ago, and a practice in two towns over. He and his competitor are the only two orthodontists in this town, so they should theoretically be the two main listings that are being pulled in. The listing for the closed practice is marked as closed on Google and has been reported to Google several times in the last few months. The listing has no website or reviews on it, although it does have an address and a phone number. We have spent months doing aggressive, in-depth NAP/local listing cleanups. We have 24 Google reviews with an average rating of 4.6 stars, and we're organically gathering reviews every week. We went through a site redesign at the beginning of this year, so we now have a mobile responsive website. We are appearing in the local pack for almost every other keyword that we have high organic rankings for, so we know it isn't necessarily an issue with our Google My Business listing. Does anyone have any ideas of what's going on, or what we can do to get our listing to appear in the local pack for this keyword? The keyword "orthodontist" is the single most important keyword to this client and our strategy, so we're open to any and all suggestions or thoughts.
Reviews and Ratings | | mothner0 -
Local Business: Chiropractic Services & Massage Services - HOW TO BRAND
Hello! I have a client who has a chiropractic business and has started offering massage services. Client has registered a DBA For the massage component of the business. Client doesn't want to cross contaminate reviews and doesn't know whether or not he should brand the two businesses in one name or separately. Currently client has inconsistent business listings for the business and is unsure of the proper way to brand and optimize for local search. Example would be: Chiropractic AAAA Dr. John B - Chiropractic AAAA Massage BODI Chiropractic AAAA & Massage BODI Background info: Main business is one entity and second is registered as DBA. Right now, Chiropractor is a sole practitioner. in the past has had other chiropractors working in the office. Has only 1 website promoting both services Both operate out of the same location. What is the best way to optimize for local search for both services and what is the best way to brand without cross contaminating reviews online. If recommendation is to target local search separately for the services, should the client has 2 websites since these services target 2 different industries. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.
Reviews and Ratings | | BrentV0 -
Traffic drop: site move from .co.uk to .info
Hi On 1st June we moved http://www.patient.co.uk to http://patient.info. We are a trusted health website so the information is relevant to all english speaking countries. (Content on the .co.uk domain has been there for over 15 years). Prior to the move over 60% of site traffic was international, even with a .co.uk domain. The intention of the move was to broaden our international reach/traffic whilst maintaining our UK traffic. We would do this as .info is a top level domain. We followed all of the best practice rules, 301s, new and old sitemaps, change of address in webmaster tools etc. Basically all the advice here: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6033049?hl=en&ref_topic=6033084&rd=1 We specifically chose on the new domain to leave "unlisted" under webmaster tools international targeting as the content is relevant for all countries. This is the only thing that has changed compared to the previous settings. The URL structure etc is all identical, just on a different domain. After the move we immediately saw a drop in c.60% of traffic. Over the first 5 weeks after the move we had initial gradual recovery (c.2% increase on traffic week on week) Since then it has completely flatlined with no traffic increase. So we are sat at c.50% less traffic than we did have before the move. Worryingly over the past 2 weeks, the indexed results for patient.info have dropped from c.2M to c.500k (https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=site%3Apatient.info) There were c.6M indexed results for patient.co.uk before the move, this has been gradually shrinking and there are now c.300k indexed results (https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=site:patient.co.uk) In webmaster tools crawl stats, .co.uk is still being crawled like crazy, much more than .info. It feels like we have followed the rules but something is missing and that the new site just isn't being fully indexed or as highly ranked as the old site. Anyone who has any input/advice would be much appreciated. Many thanks Ben
Reviews and Ratings | | PATIENTUK0 -
Two web sites with the same contact info is this a problem ?
I have two web sites and a physical shop. I run the web sites from the the same post address as the shop. I am concerned that if I add the actual address to both web sites which also has the same telephone number that google might see this as suspicious activity. The reason is I bought a competitor out and now run two sites.
Reviews and Ratings | | weddingshoesandaccessories1 -
Local review site discovery
Rand and others have shared a link to a free service where you type in a state location and it shows a list of the most used local listings & review sites for that area. I can't find this service or link anywhere. Was this a service that was on getlisted.org that no longer exists?? Anyone know where it is or where it went?
Reviews and Ratings | | clearlyseo1 -
Publishing testimonials on your site that are from your Google + (or other review sites page)
Ive got a site with some good Google + Reviews and some other good reviews on other sites that id like to be able to publish on a testimonials page on our website, but im worried about being penalised for duplicate content. Any idea of the best way to get these reviews on to our website, i was thinking about placing the text in as an image, but id prefer to do something semantic if at all possible. (I know that some review sites have javascript widgets you can use to pull in your reviews but for most of the sites we are reviewed on they dont)
Reviews and Ratings | | Sam-P0