claude-skills-reference/marketing-skill/site-architecture/references/url-design-guide.md

URL Design Guide

URL structure by site type — with examples of what good and bad looks like in practice.

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Universal URL Rules

Before the site-specific patterns, these apply everywhere:

1. Lowercase always — /Blog/SEO-Tips and /blog/seo-tips are different URLs. Always lowercase.
2. Hyphens, not underscores — Google treats hyphens as word separators. Underscores join words. /seo-tips not /seo_tips.
3. No special characters — No %, &, #, ? in the path itself.
4. No trailing slash inconsistency — Pick a convention (/page or /page/) and enforce it sitewide with redirects.
5. No dates in URLs unless required — /blog/2024/03/seo-tips ages poorly. /blog/seo-tips is evergreen.
6. Stop words are usually fine — /how-to-write-cold-emails is readable and fine. Don't obsessively remove "how", "to", "a", "the" unless the URL is very long.
7. Keep them short — Under 75 characters is a good target. Shorter is usually better.

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SaaS / B2B Software

Recommended Structure

/ (homepage)
/features
/features/[feature-name]           e.g. /features/email-automation
/pricing
/solutions/[use-case]              e.g. /solutions/sales-teams
/solutions/[industry]              e.g. /solutions/healthcare
/integrations
/integrations/[tool-name]          e.g. /integrations/salesforce
/blog
/blog/[post-slug]                  e.g. /blog/cold-email-templates
/customers
/customers/[customer-name]         e.g. /customers/acme-corp
/about
/changelog
/docs                              (or subdomain: docs.example.com)
/docs/[topic]/[subtopic]

What Works and What Doesn't

✅ Do	❌ Don't
/pricing	/pricing-plans (redundant)
/features/email-automation	/product/features/email-automation/detail (too deep)
/blog/cold-email-guide	/blog/articles/cold-email/complete-guide-to-cold-email (too long)
/solutions/sales-teams	/solutions-for-sales-teams (ugly)
/integrations/hubspot	/connect-with/hubspot-integration

SaaS-Specific Notes

• /features/ pages should actually be rankable landing pages, not just nav items.
• /solutions/ by use case captures bottom-funnel searches ("sales team email tool").
• /integrations/[tool] pages are high-intent SEO goldmines — build a real page for each.
• Blog posts should live at /blog/[slug] — not /resources/, not /learn/, not /content/. Pick one.
• Changelog belongs at /changelog — some companies put it at /releases or /updates. Fine, just pick one.

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Blog / Content Site

Recommended Structure

/ (homepage)
/[category]                        e.g. /seo, /email-marketing, /content
/[category]/[post-slug]            e.g. /seo/technical-seo-audit-checklist
/guides                            (optional hub for long-form guides)
/guides/[guide-slug]               e.g. /guides/cold-email-complete-guide
/tools                             (optional if you have free tools)
/tools/[tool-name]
/author/[author-slug]
/tag/[tag-name]                    (often better to noindex tags)

What Works and What Doesn't

✅ Do	❌ Don't
/seo/keyword-research-guide	/seo/keyword-research/a-complete-guide-to-keyword-research-for-beginners-in-2024
/guides/cold-email	/blog/2024/03/15/cold-email-guide
/author/reza-rezvani	/author?id=42
Flat category → post structure	4-level nesting

Blog-Specific Notes

• Date-based URLs (/2024/03/15/slug) age poorly and look stale. Avoid.
• Tag pages create duplicate/thin content at scale. Either noindex them or give them real content.
• If you have <500 posts, flat /post-slug is fine. If you have >500, category buckets help organization.
• Author pages are worth building as real pages — they help E-E-A-T signals.

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E-Commerce

Recommended Structure

/ (homepage)
/collections                       (or /shop, /catalog)
/collections/[category]            e.g. /collections/mens-shoes
/collections/[category]/[subcategory]   e.g. /collections/mens-shoes/running
/products/[product-slug]           e.g. /products/air-max-270-black
/brands/[brand-name]
/sale
/new-arrivals
/blog
/blog/[post-slug]

What Works and What Doesn't

✅ Do	❌ Don't
/products/air-max-270-black	/products?id=89472&color=black&size=10
/collections/mens-shoes	/products/shoes/men/athletic/running/all-styles
Canonical on variant pages	Let ?color=red&size=10 create duplicate URLs

E-Commerce-Specific Notes

• Product variant pages (size, color) are the biggest duplicate content risk in e-commerce. Use canonical tags pointing to the base product URL, or use URL parameters and configure them in GSC.
• Filter and sort pages (?sort=price-asc&brand=nike) should either be canonicalized or blocked.
• Collection/category pages need real content to rank — not just a product grid.
• Discontinued products: don't just delete them. 301 to closest alternative or return 410 with a helpful message.

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Local Business / Service Area

Recommended Structure (Single Location)

/ (homepage)
/services
/services/[service-name]           e.g. /services/plumbing-repair
/about
/contact
/blog
/blog/[post-slug]
/areas-served                      (optional hub for service area pages)
/areas-served/[city-name]          e.g. /areas-served/brooklyn

Recommended Structure (Multi-Location)

/ (homepage)
/locations
/locations/[city]                  e.g. /locations/new-york
/locations/[city]/[service]        e.g. /locations/new-york/plumbing
/services/[service-name]           (generic service pages)

Local-Specific Notes

• City/location pages must have unique, locally relevant content — not just "Find our [service] in [city]" copy-pasted 47 times.
• /areas-served/brooklyn should have real information about serving Brooklyn, not a thin page.
• Multi-location sites: /locations/[city] works better than subdomain per city for smaller operations. Subdomains make sense for truly independent franchises.

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URL Redirect Mapping (When Restructuring)

If you're changing URLs, you need a 301 redirect map. Every old URL → new URL. No exceptions.

Redirect mapping process:

1. Export all indexed URLs from Google Search Console (Crawl → Coverage → All)
2. Export all inbound links to your site (use Ahrefs, Semrush, or GSC)
3. Map old → new for every URL that has inbound links or search traffic
4. Implement 301 redirects server-side (not JS redirects, not meta refresh)
5. Monitor in GSC for 404 errors after migration
6. Update internal links — don't just redirect, fix the source links

Priority redirect tiers:

• Tier 1: Pages with significant inbound external links — redirect these first
• Tier 2: Pages with significant organic traffic — redirect to preserve equity
• Tier 3: Pages with neither — still redirect, but lower urgency

Never:

• Chain redirects more than 1 hop (/old → /temp → /new wastes equity)
• 302 redirect something that's a permanent move (use 301)
• Leave old URLs live as duplicates without canonicals

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Canonicalization

When the same content is accessible at multiple URLs, tell Google which one is canonical.

<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/the-canonical-url" />

Common scenarios requiring canonicals:

• http:// vs https:// — canonical should always be https://
• www vs non-www — pick one, canonical + 301 the other
• Trailing slash vs no trailing slash — /page and /page/ are different URLs to Google
• Filtered/sorted product pages — canonical to base product/collection URL
• Paginated pages — canonical the first page (or use rel=next/rel=prev)
• Printer-friendly versions — canonical to main page
• Syndicated content — canonical to original source

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HTTP Status Code Reference

Code	Meaning	Use
200	OK	Normal page
301	Moved Permanently	URL changed permanently — passes equity
302	Found (Temporary)	Temporary redirect — does NOT pass equity
404	Not Found	Page doesn't exist — configure a helpful 404 page
410	Gone	Page intentionally removed — Google deindexes faster than 404
503	Service Unavailable	Maintenance mode — tell Google to come back later

Use 301, not 302, for all permanent URL changes.