Which URL is Search Engine Friendly?

[Ozzman]

Hello Guys,

I am confused to select URLs of my website. Please clarify me about which of the following URL structure is more appealing to Google and other SE's.

1- http://www.abc.com/products/productxyz/ // without ending a URL with .aspx

2- http://www.abc.com/products/productxyz.aspx // ending a URL with .aspx

I hope to receive your comments on this and if you can support your answer by referencing an article then It will be appreciated most.

[Dubbya]

The deeper the file is within your directory structure, the further it is from the homepage and the less weight it carries. Matt Cutts talked about this in a video interview a while back. If I'm not mistaken, he stated that Googlebot would likely only look three levels deep (four at the most???).

Anything deeper than that would not carry much weight in terms of SERPs, so we can assume that it would end up in the suplemental search results pages. (Not where you want to be).

The first option infers that the file would be two levels deep (within a subfolder) , further from the homepage and less relevant than files within the parent folder.

http://www.abc.com/products/productxyz/productxyz.aspx"

The second option is better because it tells the SE's that the path to the file is only one level deep, closer to the home page and therefore more relevant.

http://www.abc.com/products/productxyz.aspx

In the examples you've provided, neither is terrible and, unless there's some specific reason for going deeper, the second option would be better, though this would depend on the keyword phrase that people use when searching for your products.

Honestly, I'd try it on a few products. Keep some stats on where your products are ranking in the SERPs and see how they rank over a month or two. Be sure to use comparable products (comparing apples to apples) that rank the same at the outset of your test. Put one in a subfolder, leaving the other in the parent folder. If one climbs several spots or gains a lot of traffic while the other maintains or drops, you'll have your answer.

.02

[incrediblehelp]

Both would be fine. This is such a small piece of the SEO puzzle that you should not be so worried about it.