URL Taxonomy Optimisation

Before diving into the subject of URL Taxonomy Optimisation, it’s important to clarify its position and role within the broader URL Optimisation practice. At its core, URL Optimisation can be split into:

1. URL Structure Optimisation: Disects the optimisation of every website URL, the relationship between the URLs and domain-wide aspects of URLs that directly impact all website URLs at once, as percieved by search engines.
   • URL Taxonomy Optimisation: Optimising the categorisation of all URLs on the website with particular reference to Taxonomic Depth and Topic Clusters, as explored in detail below.
   • Canonical Domain: Specifying and normalising the use of a preffered version of the domain, spanning the Protocol, an optional Subdomain (www or other additional subdomains), optimised once for the entire website.
   • HTTPS Encryption: Optimising the segment of the URL containing the Protocol, typically involving a migration from HTTP to HTTPS, carried out once for the entire website.
2. Page URL Slug Optimisation: Optimising the fragment of URL that identifies one particular landing page and is largely limited to the effective use of keywords, as part of Onpage Optimisation.

Understanding the role of URL Taxonomy Optimisation and how it fits within the wider URL Optimisation framework may prevent time-consuming follow-up fixes to preventable issues.

Defining URL Taxonomy

URL Taxonomy Optimisation entails crafting a reflection of the website’s Information Architecture in the URL Structure. A logical URL Taxonomy supports search engines in understanding the thematic relevancy of landing pages, the relationship between them and in relation to the wider web.

1. Taxonomic Depth: Taxonomic Depth reinforces the website’s information architecture by defining the position of each landing page as part of a vertical hierarchy.
   • Navigational Orientation: Nested URLs provide users with essential context regarding a page’s Parent Topic, allowing them to identify their current location within the website hierarchy and interact more freely with the wider information context.
   • Parent-Child Relationships: The taxonomy establishes a clear relationship between Parent and Child pages, acting as a map for crawlers to trace a granular page back to its Parent Page.
   • Authority Signals: Search engines assign higher authority to Parent Pages. The closer a page is to the root domain and the more relevant content is nested under it, the stronger the topical signal becomes for the entire website.
2. Topic Clusters: Topic Clusters support the grouping of semantically-related content under topic-indicative subdirectories to cultivate Topical Relevancy and earn Topical Authority in the eyes of search engines.
   • Topical Relevancy: Grouping related landing pages under a subdirectory helps search engines understand the semantic context of a website subdirectory as a whole, ensuring that the collective context of the subdirectory reinforces the relevancy of every individual URL within that path and vice versa.
   • Topical Authority: Search engines use the breadth of interlinked, relevant landing pages within a cluster to determine the website’s expertise. This “holistic” context allows crawlers to assign higher ranking potential to individual pages, as they are backed by a comprehensive network of content covering different aspects or angles of a subject.

By combining Taxonomic Depth with Topic Clusters, the URL structure moves beyond simple organisation to become a clear signal of expertise. This alignment ensures that search engines do not just see isolated pages, but instead recognise the website’s complete Topical Map. Ultimately, the clarity brought forward through the URL Taxonomy helps search engines place the website in closer alignment with relevant keywords and possibly better organic search rankings.

URL Taxonomy Optimisation Best Practice

Similarly, URL Taxonomy Optimisation must adhere to URL Optimisation Best Practice, accounting for such aspects as:

• Optimal URL lengths
• Case sensitivity
• Non-English characters
• Hyphens and underscores
• Unreserved and Reserved characters
• Blank Spaces
• Trailing Slash

Build Topic Clusters using Subdirectory Keywords

Keywords placed in a subdirectory slug provide a broader topical signal than keywords placed in the page slug:

• Optimising the Page Slugs establishes Topical Authority for the entire subdirectory they’re nested under
• Optimising the Subdirectory Slug establishes Topical Relevancy for all Pages nested under it.

This hierarchical alignment creates a bi-directional flow of authority between general topics and niche details. For instance, URL Taxonomy Optimisation is clearly pinned down as a component of the broader URL Structure Optimisation, which is itself nested under the wider topic of Technical SEO.

Subdirectory Depth

While search engines can crawl deep hierarchies, the best practice is to limit it to two to three levels of Subdirectories. Beyond this depth, the URL string becomes unintelligible to users and often truncated in SERPs. Every additional subdirectory should only be employed if it adds clear semantic value that cannot be captured by a more restrained structure.

https://wordprexeo.com/search-engine-optimisation/onpage-optimisation/url-optimisation/url-structure-optimisation/url-path-optimisation/

By nesting keywords this way, you ensure that every individual page contributes to a unified signal of expertise. In turn, this collective authority flows back down the URL path, reinforcing the organic ranking potential of every landing page within the Topic Cluster. This synergy makes it easier for search engines to trust and rank your entire website as a cohesive, authoritative resource.

Using Topics Instead of Calendar Dates in Subdirectories

Although dates are acceptable in URLs under select circumstances, most of the time using dates in URLs isn’t the right choice. The exception to using dates is when the content on a landing page might be time-bound and searched using keywords incorporating dates, thus making the dates a relevancy signal for search engines about the landing page.

However, the use of dates in other cases is generally an inferior way of structuring content as the a published date provides limited context to search engines or users about the semantics of the content behind the URL.