Improve your SEO with URL Re-Writing

An optional plug-in is now available for axis vMerchant websites to allow URL Re-Writing. The axis vMerchant URL Re-Writer (stock reference VMURLREW) can be added to any axis vMerchant website for a one-off licence fee.

What is a URL?

To put it simply, a URL (or Uniform Resource Locator) is the web address of a web page or a website, for example

http://www.axisfirst.co.uk
http://www.axisfirst.co.uk/internet/
http://www.axisfirst.co.uk/internet/faq.asp

are all URLs (strictly speaking, this is not a full definition of a URL since they can, for example, also give the address of images).

What is URL Re-Writing and Why Might I Want It?

By modifying the URL used to identify a product or a section within your axis vMerchant catalogue, you can have a marked improvement on your search engine positioning.

For example, if section 12 of your catalogue is devoted to “Power Tools” then the URL for that section of your website would normally be

http://www.mysite.co.uk/Catalogue.asp?PrGrp=12

When Google, or any other search engine looks at your website, it will find a link to this section of the catalogue and will not have any clue as to what the web page is about, other than it is something to do with a catalogue. When it visits that page, it will probably find that it is something to do with Power Tools, based on the heading on the page but it won’t have a particularly high ranking.

By using the axis vMerchant URL Re-Writer, the web page would actually have the following URL:

http://www.mysite.co.uk/Power-Tools/catalogue/12

This has the effect of telling the search engine that the page is to do with Power Tools before it even gets to the page so the logic will follow that if the URL is related to Power Tools, and the page mentions Power Tools, then it must be more to do with Power Tools than a web page that just mentions them. This increases the page’s “relevance” as far as the search engine is concerned.

Do I have to do anything to set up URL Re-Writing?

No - it is all fully automatic - the URL is changed to reflect the description of the eBusiness Group or the individual Stock Item in question whilst also providing information to axis vMerchant to identify the actual group or product concerned. axis vMerchant cannot rely on the description alone since these may not be unique - this is why the subsidiary information is added to the end of the URL.

Are There Any Other Benefits?

Yes - simpler search engines may not be indexing your entire catalogue at the moment. If, for example, you have a catalogue divided into four top tiers then the URLs would be something like

http://www.mysite.co.uk/Catalogue.asp?PrGrp=1
http://www.mysite.co.uk/Catalogue.asp?PrGrp=2
http://www.mysite.co.uk/Catalogue.asp?PrGrp=3
http://www.mysite.co.uk/Catalogue.asp?PrGrp=4

They may not index the second, third and fourth sections because they may appear to the search engine as repetitions of the first page since they all have basically the same URL with only a subtly difference in the variable at the end.

With URL Re-Writing, these might appear as

http://www.mysite.co.uk/Books/catalogue/1
http://www.mysite.co.uk/Garden-Tools/catalogue/2
http://www.mysite.co.uk/Water-Equipment/catalogue/3
http://www.mysite.co.uk/Safety-Equipment/catalogue/4

All of these will appear to any Search Engine as completely different pages and so will definitely be indexed separately.

Will this Guarantee Better Search Engine Results?

With Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), there are no guarantees - all you can do is follow best practice and keep up with the latest theories on best practice. Search Engine companies are constantly refining and changing their methods of determining which sites are most relevant to particular terms so this is a constantly changing area. Remember as well that whatever techniques you are using, your competitors are probably using as well! Changing your URLs to reflect the content of the pages should be seen as just one part of an overall SEO strategy. For further advice, please talk to axisfirst Web Services.

Why Is This Not Enabled on Every axis vMerchant website?

Firstly, not everyone is interested in Search Engine indexing of their complete catalogue - trade-only (B2B) sites, for example, which require a login in order to access the catalogue. Secondly, URLs can become longer with URL Re-Writing since they incorporate a full description rather than just a code number. Normally this is not a problem since people very rarely type in the full URL themselves - they normally visit the home page of your site and browse by clicking on links. If, however, you regularly give customers full URLs straight into sections of the product catalogue then this may be an issue.