this are my battle-proven URL rules. whenever i violated them and changed the priority I regretted it.
URL-rules
URL-Rule 1: unique (1 URL == 1 resource, 1 resource == 1 URL)
URL-Rule 2: permanent (they do not change, no dependencies to anything)
URL-Rule 3: manageable (equals measurable, 1 logic per site section, no exceptions)
URL-Rule 4: easily scalable logic
URL-Rule 5: short
URL-Rule 6: with a variation (partial) of the targeted phrase
URL-Rule 1 is more important than 1 to 6 combined, URL-Rule 2 is more important than 2 to 6 combines, … URL-Rule 5 and 6 are a trade-of. 6 is the least important.
the URL yoursite.com/short violated rule number 3. lets say you have list pages, category pages, tag pages, database generated pages, post pages .... now say you change your listpages, in design, in how they look, you want to know if they now work better (for whatever metrik you care about or not), well good luck with that. either you create a regex of hell for GA or whatever tool you are using or just a spreadsheet.
or you do
example.com/l/short for list pages, example.cm/a/super-short for article pages, now easy to measure and manage.
also dont do
example.com/category-name/article as all hierarchies are imperfect and change over time (there is no permanent or perfect hierarchy over time) so any kind of hierarchy violates URL rule number 2.
use %namespaces%, these are one or two letter words which identify the pagetype (listpage, article page) (note: pagetype defined as "share the same or very similar process on how the page gets created, changing the template or process of the pagetype, changes all pages under this pagetype)
https://www.example.com/%country or language namespace%/%pageytpe namespace%/%permanent identifier i have under total control%/ for multimarket and/or multilanguage webproperties
and don't do hierarchical URLs also
this are my battle-proven URL rules. whenever i violated them and changed the priority I regretted it.
URL-Rule 1 is more important than 1 to 6 combined, URL-Rule 2 is more important than 2 to 6 combines, … URL-Rule 5 and 6 are a trade-of. 6 is the least important.the URL yoursite.com/short violated rule number 3. lets say you have list pages, category pages, tag pages, database generated pages, post pages .... now say you change your listpages, in design, in how they look, you want to know if they now work better (for whatever metrik you care about or not), well good luck with that. either you create a regex of hell for GA or whatever tool you are using or just a spreadsheet.
or you do example.com/l/short for list pages, example.cm/a/super-short for article pages, now easy to measure and manage.
also dont do example.com/category-name/article as all hierarchies are imperfect and change over time (there is no permanent or perfect hierarchy over time) so any kind of hierarchy violates URL rule number 2.
use %namespaces%, these are one or two letter words which identify the pagetype (listpage, article page) (note: pagetype defined as "share the same or very similar process on how the page gets created, changing the template or process of the pagetype, changes all pages under this pagetype)
i usually end up with
https://www.example.com/%pagetype namespace%/%permanent identifier i have under total control%/ or
https://www.example.com/%country or language namespace%/%pageytpe namespace%/%permanent identifier i have under total control%/ for multimarket and/or multilanguage webproperties
you can download my book for free here if you like https://gumroad.com/l/understanding-seo/hacker-news I go in a bit more detail there.