Does a URL affect SERP?

[iandoc]

I have a client who's rankings/visitors have declined over many months after introducing a CMS that uses the following structure:

zzz.domain.com/services/s.cfm/id/8/s/101/CCTV-Systems/IP-CCTV-Qnap/
zzz.domain.com/services/s.cfm/id/6/s/22/Security-Guarding/Construction-Security/
zzz.domain.com/services/s.cfm/id/8/s/128/CCTV-Systems/MainsFree-CCTVAlarm-System/
zzz.domain.com/services/i.cfm/id/8/CCTV-Systems/
zzz.domain.com/services/s.cfm/id/8/s/46/CCTV-Systems/CCTV-Maintenance/
zzz.domain.com/services/i.cfm/id/5/Mobile-Patrols/
zzz.domain.com/services/s.cfm/id/5/s/16/Mobile-Patrols/LockUnlock-Service/
zzz.domain.com/services/s.cfm/id/8/s/100/CCTV-Systems/IP-CCTV-Avigilon/
zzz.domain.com/services/s.cfm/id/8/s/131/CCTV-Systems/ANPR/
zzz.domain.com/services/s.cfm/id/6/s/53/Security-Guarding/Security-Training/
zzz.domain.com/services/s.cfm/id/8/s/91/CCTV-Systems/National-Installation/
zzz.domain.com/services/s.cfm/id/7/s/44/Fire-Alarm-Systems/Fire-Alarm-Maintenance/
zzz.domain.com/services/s.cfm/id/1/s/41/Alarm-Systems/Business-Alarm/
zzz.domain.com/services/s.cfm/id/7/s/35/Fire-Alarm-Systems/Commercial-and-Retail/
zzz.domain.com/services/s.cfm/id/8/s/102/CCTV-Systems/IP-CCTV-Milestone/
zzz.domain.com/services/s.cfm/id/7/s/28/Fire-Alarm-Systems/Hotels-and-Guest-Houses/
zzz.domain.com/services/i.cfm/id/51/Vehicle-Tracking/

(samples of pages)

Does anyone have any experience of such URLs???
I can detect no other issues that could have produced such a reduction in traffic.

[DonOmite]

These urls will not hurt the position. Just because they are ColdFusion (cfm) does not hurt anything. The page content might be a problem. Most of the CMS pull the pages from a database and that can hurt because the spider may not "see" the content of the page. You might want to look at doing an on the fly conversion to static html for spiders. See if that helps. Of course you didn't say your SE ranking was going down just traffic.

If your SE ranking has not changed and traffic is going down that means people just aren't interested in the site or are not searching on the topic.

[SteveGerencser]

Did they bother to redirect the old pages to the new? If they did use redirects, are they aware that those lose value over time?

[chrisJumbo]

CMSs can also introduce a change in titles and descriptions which can lead to lower CTR if searches don't think the page will provide the info they are looking for. Search for the pages in Google and see how they look. Make changes if necessary.

[claybutler]

I agree with Chris and Steve. I've seen so much damage caused from switching to a CMS because someone forgot to set up their 301s and the new CMS puts the domain name as the default title on every page. This is really common.

[Noble123]

If you change the url structure (not recommended) then 301 redirection becomes must to keep the old rankings as well as the PR value. Otherwise it will take more time to gain the same results.

[iandoc]

Thanks for the replies.
The site was transformed into the CMS almost a year ago.
The site lost a lot of traffic/serps immediately - and the decline has continued.
The site has the basic 'optimisation' carried out on it. And all the pages seem to be indexed by the engines. The content is not terrific - but I think adequate.

I have never seen a site produce such terrible traffic under similar circumstances. And the only 'unknown' from my personal experience is this convoluted url generated by (a bespoke I think) CMS system. But I have no experience of Cold Fusion.

[radhika]

Nothing to do with coldfusion. php, asp, html... doesn't matter for search engines.

You didn't answer about 301 redirects that others asked.

Check webmaster tools (under 404 errors) if still any old pages are in the Google index. 301 them to specific new pages.

In GWT, you will also see the backlinks. See if there are any for old pages. 301 them.

Main purpose of above is telling google pages are moved permanently. Google slowly drops old pages.

.

[iandoc]

Nothing to do with coldfusion. php, asp, html... doesn't matter for search engines.

You didn't answer about 301 redirects that others asked.

As I said though - the site has been in the new format for at least 12 months now.

[deepsand]

As I said though - the site has been in the new format for at least 12 months now.

And, maybe it's been losing traffic for lack of 301s, a subject that you steadfastly evade.