[intro]Understanding the URL structure of your EKM online shop can help you learn how the platform works in relation to how your content is displayed. [/intro]

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Your Default Domain Name

When you first open your EKM online shop account, you will have a default domain name on your shop, which looks something like this:

This comprises your EKM online shop’s Account ID, the server that your EKM online shop is hosted on and the EKM platform. In the example above, ‘ffcfab’ is the Account ID and ‘42’ is the number of the server where the shop is hosted. Of course, when you point a domain name at your EKM online shop, this default domain name is not visible to anyone other than yourself as the owner of the account.

Homepage

When you have pointed a domain name at your EKM online shop, the Homepage will display your domain name:

[remember]For the domain name to be visible on all pages throughout your EKM online shop, you must point your domain by setting up A Records. If your domain is only visible on the Homepage and not on any other pages, you have used a forwarder - you will need to use A Records instead to ensure that the domain displays correctly on all pages throughout your EKM online shop. You can locate the relevant Guides by clicking here.[/remember]

Category Pages

When you navigate to a Category Page, you’ll see that the URL changes:

In this example, the URL comprises the domain name of the shop (‘evestestshop.com’), the name of the Category (‘Accessories’), the ID of the Category (‘1048’) and ‘c-asp’, which indicates that it’s a Category Page you’re looking at.

Whenever you create a Category, your EKM online shop will automatically assign it an ID to differentiate it from the other Categories. You can see a list of the IDs assigned to your Categories when you download them onto a spreadsheet using the Import/Export feature. IDs are also helpful if you wish to use EKM Tags.

Product Pages

When you navigate to a Product Page, the URL is slightly different to a Category Page:

The URL still begins with the domain name of the shop (‘evestestshop.com’), but this time, you’ll see the name of the Product on the Product Page (‘steel-toe-cap-boots’), the ID of the Product (‘9806’) and finally ‘p-asp’ indicates that you’re viewing a Product Page. 

[remember]There are - between the words of the Product Name because URLs can’t have spaces, so the - indicates a space: steel-toe-cap-boots.[/remember]

Whenever you create a Product, your EKM online shop will automatically assign it an ID to differentiate it from the other Products. You can see a list of the IDs assigned to your products when you download them to a spreadsheet using the Import/Export feature. IDs are also helpful if you wish to use EKM Tags.

Webpages

When you navigate to a Webpage, you’ll see that the URL is similar to that for Categories and Products:

The URL still begins with the domain name of the shop (‘evestestshop.com’), but this time, you’ll see the name of the Webpage (‘about-us’), the ID of the Webpage (‘28’) and finally ‘w-asp’ indicates that you’re viewing a Product Page.  Whenever you create a Webpage, your EKM online shop will automatically assign it an ID to differentiate it from the other Webpages. 

Is this URL structure SEO friendly?

The most important part of the URL Structure from an SEO perspective is ‘Does this URL relate well to the page I am currently looking at?’. Because the EKM online shop platform will always follow the pattern “‘Domain Name’/‘page name’” (plus the identifiers that the shop uses, as detailed above), the answer will always be ‘Yes, as long as your Product, Category or Webpage name is also relevant to the content on the page’. 

There are several approaches to URL structure, with some platforms preferring to include additional information before the current page to illustrate which Category your Product is in. There are three main reasons the EKM online shop platform doesn’t use this approach:

1. The closer to the front of the URL, the more influential the link between the URL and content is. Because a Product Page URL does not reference the Category Page that the Product resides in, this gives a certain amount of weight to the Product Page when it is displayed in search results. Click depth is more important than URL structure; Google gives more weight to pages of a website or online shop in search results based on the number of clicks it takes for a user to navigate from the Homepage. You can read more about this here.

2. The best way to provide page structure context is on the page using Breadcrumb Schema (Google will also feature this in its search results). Your EKM online shop does this automatically. 

3. The best way to provide an overview of your site-wide structure is to submit your sitemap to the relevant search engine. Simply follow the steps in Submitting your EKM online shop to Google and Submitting your EKM online shop to Bing.

[tips]Achieving an optimised URL can result in many different results but the spirit of an ‘optimised URL’ is to avoid a URL that looks like ‘www.mydomain.com/pages/75210333902107’ as this has no relevance to anyone. Whilst it is essential that the URL contains words that correctly identify the page's content, it is not recommended that you add superfluous keywords. Not only does this not work, but it is something that Google recommends against. You can read more about this here.[/tips]

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[contact] If you need our help with your EKM online shop, contact your Ecommerce Expert or the Customer Support Team, who will be able to point you in the right direction. We're open from 8am-6pm weekdays and 9am-5.30pm weekends. If you'd like to suggest a feature or an upgrade on any of the EKM platforms, please let us know on the EKM Suggestions Board. If you have a non-account-specific question to ask the EKM Team, join us in the EKM Community. [/contact]