Advice for SEO friendly URL structure

27 replies
  • SEO
  • |
Hey guys,

I am currently setting up a hotel booking website and I'm not so sure how to structure it.

I have landing pages for:

1. Cities
2. Sights
3. States

The main keywords are mainly "Hotels in Cityname" or "Hotels near Sightname".

What would be the best SEO friendly way of structuring the url?

https://hotels-example.com/hotels/cities/cityname
https://hotels-example.com/hotels/sights/sightname
https://hotels-example.com/hotels/states/statename

or

https://hotels-example.com/hotels/cityname
https://hotels-example.com/hotels/sightname
https://hotels-example.com/hotels/statename

or

https://hotels-example.com/hotels-in-cityname
https://hotels-example.com/hotels-in-sightname
https://hotels-example.com/hotels-in-statename

Or are there better ways of structuring it or am I just overthinking it?

I would greatly appreciate any advice and suggestions

Best,

Max
#advice #friendly #seo #structure #url
  • Profile picture of the author expmrb
    Url structure doesn't matter if you do SEO right. Choose any url among the three.
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    • Isn't Url structure a very important part of SEO ? Why would it not matter ?
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanbiddulph
    I like the 2nd batch Max, first option/structure. Totally clean, clear and yep, you did the least over thinking with that Joking with ya, but it seems to send the most clear, direct message to Google. Site name, hotel, city name. 3 key variables in communicating with search engines to give Google and searchers exactly what they want.

    Ryan
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  • Profile picture of the author dipika13
    3rd one looks more pretty as it helps user clearly understand what URL is that.
    @expmrb: SEO and user friendly URL still matters for website ranking.
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  • Profile picture of the author Hosting Safety
    Third one is good and it absolutely SEO Friendly URL.
    Having an SEO-friendly URL structure can help search engines and users alike navigate your website and understand more easily.
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  • Profile picture of the author benthomas642
    2nd URL structure is good as per SEO terms and conditions.
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  • Profile picture of the author Arvind Kumar
    Just keep a short URL with your targeted keyword and follow the SEO on the rest of the page...3rd option is pretty simple and says a lot in few words....!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author abhishek singh
    You should use that URL which will be easy to read and eye-catching for the user. According to me, the third URL batch will be the best for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author niimdigital
    I Thought URL Structure is very Important part of an On-Page SEO, Basically, If Your URL is defined then Search engine as well Users clear about where he is going or not, URL structure should be small and descriptive, mainly SEO's Focus on Keywords in URL, You Can Include City in URL.
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  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    According to Google, the URL is not going to help the page rank better so it really does not matter. I like the third option the best but it is just a personal preference that does nothing for SEO.

    Unfortunately, far too many SEO websites that should know better put together flimsy studies where they "prove" that the URL matters by using correlations that do not factor in page content, links, click through rate, and all of the other 200 things that Google uses to rank websites.

    Your choice: You can believe Google or theories.

    And, I should add that the average internet user does not look at URLs at all. Most people using computers don't even see URLs. They click on anchor text and don't even notice what is going on WAY up there in the browser's URL section.

    You might want to check out this post - http://www.thesempost.com/the-import...ing-to-google/
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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by dave_hermansen View Post

      According to Google, the URL is not going to help the page rank better so it really does not matter. I like the third option the best but it is just a personal preference that does nothing for SEO.

      Unfortunately, far too many SEO websites that should know better put together flimsy studies where they "prove" that the URL matters by using correlations that do not factor in page content, links, click through rate, and all of the other 200 things that Google uses to rank websites.

      Your choice: You can believe Google or theories.

      And, I should add that the average internet user does not look at URLs at all. Most people using computers don't even see URLs. They click on anchor text and don't even notice what is going on WAY up there in the browser's URL section.




      Good grief, Google isn't going to hold your hand while you rank pages. That's fantasy band camp stuff.

      URLs do matter, hierarchy matters and can generate both Sitelinks and Mega Sitelinks which Google will never tell you. Go read their documentation on Sitelinks, all useless info. that doesn't generate Sitelinks
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  • The second way is better for you, bro. But is does not matter. Good URL is URL have the best information for your customers.
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  • Profile picture of the author markowe
    I mean, you might consider not having a structure at all, and each hotel just having its own page. Because the URL is not supposed to be a "filter" - otherwise you would end up with multiple URLs pointing to the same content (definitely not good). So if you do have a structure then yoursite.com/city/hotel is fine, you are going to store your hotels with multiple filter criteria anyway, right? So someone might drill down to the hotel they want via "city", some via "sight", someone else might get there by filtering on the facilities it offers, or the star rating. You can't put all those criteria in the URL anyway, so you might as well opt for the most "general", probably "city".
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  • Profile picture of the author nickchernets
    I will check it, have someone already used it?
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  • Profile picture of the author Kereana K
    A URL consist of targeted keyword with all the SEO aspects in it.I would prefer 2nd option
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  • URL Structure matters for optimizing any website no extension is required make it simple and clear.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sclark
    The URLs are not that crucial in terms of SEO (if you have ugly ones - well that`s bad, but that doesn`t really make any significant difference which ones of the good ones you`ll chose).

    As for user experience, I`d personally stick to the 3rd pack. With such structure /hotels/cities/cityname it looks like there are hotels and then there are cities in them The third variant looks the most intuitive and descriptive, besides, these URLs mirror the keywords you`ll target, so seems logical.
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  • Profile picture of the author adems
    I get with 3rd structure that clearly state about location weather it is city, sight or state.
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  • Profile picture of the author gagansandhu
    If your website have unique content and good seo optimization then you can use any one of your URL which you requires first.
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  • Profile picture of the author arjoton
    First, take the Hotel Reliable Damie, then URL A
    1. keyword
    2. Easy keyword
    3. famous keyword
    4. Moer cherching keyword
    Please mention
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  • Profile picture of the author SEONinjaa
    To rank with many keywords and different webpages of a website we need to set the structure of URL. URL structuring is the very important step to rank on the search engine. When we create SEO friendly URL we always set our goal that in the URL there should be our keywords which helps to get better rank. URL structuring is directly connected with keywords in the URL.
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  • Profile picture of the author dharamveer saini
    According to SEO point of view, a website's URL having some factors

    Straightforward: URLs with duplicate content should have canonical URLs specified for them, there should be no confusing redirects on the website, etc.

    Meaningful URL names: URL names should have keywords in them, not gibbering numbers & punctuation marks.

    Right URLs: According to seo, not all URLs on a website are of equal importance according to seo theory. Some even should be concealed from the search engines.
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  • Profile picture of the author Shrusti
    I would like to go with the 2nd option as it is clear and perfect match with the keywords used and so can help you better.
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  • Profile picture of the author EelKat
    Originally Posted by Max Scho View Post

    Hey guys,

    I am currently setting up a hotel booking website and I'm not so sure how to structure it.

    I have landing pages for:

    1. Cities
    2. Sights
    3. States

    The main keywords are mainly "Hotels in Cityname" or "Hotels near Sightname".

    What would be the best SEO friendly way of structuring the url?

    https://hotels-example.com/hotels/cities/cityname
    https://hotels-example.com/hotels/sights/sightname
    https://hotels-example.com/hotels/states/statename

    or

    https://hotels-example.com/hotels/cityname
    https://hotels-example.com/hotels/sightname
    https://hotels-example.com/hotels/statename

    or

    https://hotels-example.com/hotels-in-cityname
    https://hotels-example.com/hotels-in-sightname
    https://hotels-example.com/hotels-in-statename

    Or are there better ways of structuring it or am I just overthinking it?

    I would greatly appreciate any advice and suggestions

    Best,

    Max
    If you go to Google's web site, and then to the help sections for AdSense, AdWords, Analytics, and YouTube, and read all of the several hundred) articles written by Google to teach you how to properly do SEO, you will find there is an article on "three tier internal linking" which they say is the recommended format to use.

    They had several info graphics showing exactly how, step by step to lay out the urls of your site, to best allow their spiders to index the pages.

    The format of the urls they showed in the example, matched your 3rd grouping, not your first two examples.

    The three tier format as Google themselves explained it goes like this:

    Level 1: The Domain
    Level 2: The Topic Indexes/Categories
    Level 3: The Pages


    In your example it would be done like this (according to Google themselves)


    Level 1: https://hotels-example.com
    Level 2: https://hotels-example.com/hotels-in-cityname
    Level 3: https://hotels-example.com/name-of-hotel-number-1

    Your site has ONLY 1, Level 1 page (https://hotels-example.com); from this page you link all the Level 2 pages into your navabar

    Your site has ONE Level 2 page PER TOPIC or category (Your site will only have 10 to 30 or so Level 2 pages)

    https://hotels-example.com/hotels-in-Old-Orchard-Beach (Hotels In Old Orchard Beach, Maine)
    https://hotels-example.com/hotels-in-Boston (Hotels in Boston, Mass)

    are Level 2 pages, that contain NO CONTENT other then to act as a list of links to ALL your Level 3 pages for that category. (With a short 100 word description for each page.)


    The content of your Level 2 Page will look like this:

    This url: https://hotels-example.com/hotels-in-Old-Orchard-Beach wold contain a list like this:

    The Sand Piper Motel, Old Orchard Beach, Maine
    Beaver Creek Condominium, Old Orchard Beach, Maine
    The Wagon Wheel RV Park, Old Orchard Beach, Maine
    The Brunswick Hotel, Old Orchard Beach, Maine
    The Powderhorn Campground, Old Orchard Beach, Maine

    Each of those pages is a Level 3 page, your site will have hundreds, possibly thousands of Level 3 pages; each level 3 page, featuring details of only 1 motel. The urls of those tier 3 pages would look like this:

    https://hotels-example. com/SandPiper-Motel-OOB-ME-04064
    https://hotels-example. com/Beaver-Creek-Condominium-OOB-ME-04064
    https://hotels-example. com/Wagon-Wheel-RV-Park-OOB-ME-04064
    https://hotels-example. com/Brunswick-Hotel-OOB-ME-04064
    https://hotels-example. com/Powderhorn-Campground-OOB-ME-04064-1520

    (including the postal zip code is recommended as it helps Google's Pigeon index your pages in the correct local directories which are used in conjunction with search results in Google Maps - I know the Powderhorn's full 9 digit zip code because they are my abutting neighbour... 04064 is the zip code for the town Old Orchard Beach, the 4 digit tag 1520 at the end is the zip code for the street Portland Avenue; if you know both zip and street codes, this will boost your page in Google Map & Local Business search results dramatically - my own web site gets 80%+ of it's traffic from a 14 mile radius of the 04064-1520 zip code because of this; this is a little known technique used by travel sites that actually took the time to read Google's own help pages on how to format your local travel/business sites for Pigeon optimization - if you are looking to do a travel site, you want to do heavy research into Google's Pigeon algorithm, because that's one - not Panda - is the one that'll be hitting your site hard.)

    Anyways, that's the format Google says to use. I highly recommend you do some heavy duty reading of their Help Section articles, because it's far better to get advice straight from the horse's mouth. I mean, who knows better what Google wants you to do, then Google themselves, right?
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  • Profile picture of the author mahdi0907
    I like the 3rd batch. For your kind information, URL is minor for ranking in Google but you should careful about making URL - seo benefit whatever minor contribution and user friendly.
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  • Profile picture of the author johnsimth
    In my opinion, third one is good for your website. Short and simple URL is always best that search engines like and easy to remember for users.
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  • Profile picture of the author nickchernets
    Try to find out a tool which can do an audit for your site and it will show you if your URL are SEO friendly or not.
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