In SEO, URLs have very little impact on positioning, but that doesn't mean that they’re useless!
They represent the address of your pages, and once they’re known by search engines, it’s strongly recommended to avoid changing them, especially if your SEO is effective.
Presentation of the “Product URLs” feature
On the WiziShop ecommerce solution, from now on, e-merchants who create an online store will have shortened URLs at the product level.
All your product URLs will be directly linked to the root of the site.
- Example of a shortened product URL (by default):
- Example of an unshortened product URL:
In ecommerce, some e-merchants have a catalog that often evolves. The owner is therefore obliged to review the structure of their site by adding categories, sub-categories, or even by removing product lines.
All these modifications force them to change URLs, set up numerous redirections on their online store, and modify links within their internal linking—tasks that can be time consuming and especially harmful for your SEO. Root URLs are the solution to this type of problem.
This configuration is now by default, but you have the option to choose between long URLs or shortened URLs for all your product pages in your administration area.
Simply go to the “Product URLs” tab to be able to add category directories to your product pages.
Each configuration has its advantages and disadvantages. Neither is formally better than the other; it’ll mainly depend on your needs. It’s for this reason that it’s an option and that we leave the choice to you.
The advantages of each configuration
Advantages of shortened URLs (default):
The main advantage of shortened URLs is that they allow you more flexibility with your product catalog.
For example, if you start a store with a limited catalog, as soon as your line expands and you need to add sub-categories, all your product listings will have to be redirected. This problem will not exist with shortened URLs.
You also have much more freedom if you decide to redesign your site tree or move products to other categories.
To summarize the advantages:
- Flexibility to move products to other categories
- Flexibility to add categories and sub-categories
- Flexibility to review the structure of the site
- Shorter URL
Advantages of complete URLs
The main advantage of complete URLs is the ease of analyzing the different sections of your site by classifying them by directories. For example, if you want to analyze the traffic generated by the product pages of a specific category, you’ll just have to apply a filter with the name of the category in the URL.
At the UX level, some users also appreciate having a view of the tree structure in the URL to know where they are in the site.
From an SEO point of view, the weight of keywords in the URL is very minimal. But if they’re present, it’s always a good thing!
To summarize the advantages:
- Display of the tree structure in the URL
- Presence of keywords related to the universe in the URL
- Simplified segmentation (Google Analytics, log analysis,...)
With these different advantages, you should now know what is the best URL structure for your online store.
How the "Product URLs" option works
- For new e-merchants, as soon as you activate the option, the category and sub-category directories are added to the URLs of your product pages.
- For existing e-merchants with full URLs, as soon as you activate the option, the category and sub-category directories in your product listing URLs will be removed. All your URLs with directories will be automatically redirected to the root version as 301 redirects.
The sitemap file will also be updated with the new URLs.
Warning: if your store already exists and is already known by search engines, the activation of this option can potentially cause drops in position and traffic. It’s therefore recommended to activate this option only after a long reflection or when you create your site.
