5 replies to this topic

[fromtherooftops]

For an ecommerce site, what would be a better internal link structure?

Let's say I have a sports merchandise store:

should I put very basic categories on the front page (where most my inbound links hit); ie., football, baseball, hockey. Then within each subpage have links like football helmets, football apparel, football gifts.

- Or -

Does it make sense to be more specific for each category on my front page and include a wider array of pages (maybe pages that have products that converts better); ie. football apparel, hockey gifts, baseball apparel, football helmets, baseball helmets, hockey helmets, etc.

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Option one seems to make sense in the way that search engines like a good taxonomy of information. However, listing more rounded links on the front page makes me wonder if these pages might get a bit more link value even with a thinner page rank.

[chrishirst]

(maybe pages that have products that converts better)

End of question I would say.

[fromtherooftops]

End of question I would say.

Thanks Chris.

Let's say I didn't have a specific stand out, better conversion products. What would you think then?

[chrishirst]

the main priority (for me anyway) would be to minimise the number of clicks it takes to get to a specific product page.

[Jill]

should I put very basic categories on the front page (where most my inbound links hit); ie., football, baseball, hockey. Then within each subpage have links like football helmets, football apparel, football gifts.

To me, that makes the most intuitive sense and would be highly usable for your site visitors.

[Randy]

It's something you'll want to test at some point FTRT.

As a general rule, most times less clicks produces greater ROI. However I've done conversion testing on sites where exactly the opposite is true.

So it depends upon the site, its complexity, it's potential customer base, what those folks want/need and how savvy they are. Setting up some conversion analysis where you can test various sales funnels is the only way to get the answer you're looking for, for your specific site and its visitors.