Forum Moderators: phranque
Is there a limit to the number of characters or words you should use when naming your web pages?
There is a limit but if you ever even come close to it, something is wrong. ;)
The goal is to keep them short and sweet. I like to refer to them as Intuitive URIs. Think of them like a breadcrumb trail. But, be sure to maintain brevity and clarity. ;)
/manufacturing/contract/ or /contract/manufacturing/
It all depends on how the site is categorized.
contact_mfg.html
So I should place lets say my contract page into a manufacturing folder?
This will all depend on the taxonomy of your site, the structure. If you are building from scratch or reorganizing, now is the time to give careful consideration to the long term development of the site. Plan now for growth. Using sub directories and/or sub-domains should be part of that plan.
What is the benefit of that?
It provides a more definitive architecture for the site. It makes management more streamlined. URIs are more intuitive. Etc...
Also should I use a dash or an underscore? Thanks for the help.
I prefer hyphens but have recently (in the past few years) stopped using them in most instances. If I do use them, it is usually only one or two occurrences and typically not for top level pages.
I do have some other domains for topics of our site but they are .biz and .info, are those worth using in place of a page on the main url?
I would keep as much info on one domain as possible.
As far as taxonomy as pageoneresults stated it depends on your site. It also depends on how large your site will end up being and the topics covered.
If you plan on having a page or two about the subject on a small site, then
yourdomain.com/jaguarxj8.html may work just fine.
If you plan on having many pages on different brands/types/manufacturers of "Cars" you may want
yourdomain.com/cars/Jaguar/xj8.html
Are those worth using in place of a page on the main url?
Not from my perspective they aren't. For one, they are not .com's. Two, adding more domains into the mix increases everything exponentially. I'd rather focus all my energies on one property and make it the best that it can be. If, at a later date, we find we have something that needs a new home, we might consider another domain and it would surely be a .com.
Thanks again for your help. I've gotten some great ideas from this post.
Unfortunately we have allot of important links to our site that generate some good traffic so changing page names is quite the task, setting up redirects ,updating site maps, contacting the other webmasters to fix our links, updating Google and overture ad links,and trying not to ruin some of the good traffic that has already been established.
Many will tell you "don't fix it if it ain't broke". I would tend to agree when it comes to primary traffic generators.
I would do the reorganization slowly. Focus on specific sections and do a group at a time. Choose those pages that are not top performers first. 301's within the same domain are fine. You will effectively pass old to new including PR. I would definitely plan this carefully so as not to upset the current situation too much.
Keep in mind, you'll need to keep those 301s almost forever. ;)
My hosting company provides a simple way to redirect old links to new ones. Is that equal to a 301 redirect?
My hosting company provides a simple way to redirect old links to new ones. Is that equal to a 301 redirect?
Ummm, that would be the very first thing I would want to confirm. Find out exactly how they are doing that and be sure that the server headers are returning a 301 and not a 302 for those old pages being permenantly redirected to new pages.
/manufacturing/contract/
So I should place lets say my contract page into a manufacturing folder?
yourdomain.com/cars/Jaguar/xj8.html
