Are Your Alpaca Web Site’s URLs Fit for the Search Engines?

Published 4/21/2009

You’ve got a beautiful alpaca web site. You’ve dreamed up wonderful graphics and carefully planned what you want to say on each page. But chances are you haven’t given thought to some structural considerations that can make a big difference in how easily people can find your web site.

If your alpaca website uses a content management system, you’ll want to pay attention to the URLs of your pages.

URLs are what you see in the browser’s address bar for any given web page. Some content systems create a URL or web address structure that prevents Google from indexing site pages easily, meaning those pages will be unlikely to show up when people search on words that may be relevant to your herd or farm.

Pull up your alpaca web site now and click through the pages, looking at what shows in the browser address bar as you go. Pay particular attention to deep pages, such as those for each individual alpaca for sale…

Look for any strings of characters that include symbols such as &, ?, +, =, % and numbers.

These are symptoms of dynamically generated pages, prevalent in ecommerce pages and content management systems. The trouble is that search engine spiders cannot process them as efficiently as simple URLs – and are therefore less likely to even index the page, much less show the page in search results.

The Sad Plight of Alpaca Lee’s Web Site

Here’s an example. Suppose a fictitious alpaca farm in Vermont called Alpaca Lee has a website at leesalpacas.com. There Lee has listed all his elite suri alpacas for sale. Each alpaca has its own page complete with photos, histogram, herdsire, etc. The page for a beautiful alpaca by the name of Pinto shows this for the URL: http://leesalpacas.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Alpaca.display&Alpaca_ID=7

Yikes! This format is difficult for search engines to index. Poor Pinto would not be likely to show up when people were searching on terms like “VT alpacas for sale”, a true loss for Lee who has gone to the trouble of creating excellent content on his alpaca’s web pages.

Here’s another way the URL could be written for that same page: http://www.leesalpacas.com/alpacas-for-sale/suri/pinto

This URL format would make it much easier for Lee’s pages to show up when people searched online for terms like “VT alpacas for sale”, “VT suri alpacas”, and other specific words on that page.

What can you do if your alpaca web site listings show those long, confusing URLs? One option is to switch your alpacas over to the SEO Alpaca Catalog Manager. It automatically creates efficient URLs and page structures for each alpaca, helping them show up in online searches (not to mention giving them added exposure in the National Alpaca Directory).

Another thing to keep in mind: with all this talk of efficient URL structures, you’ll likely want to jump in and remedy the situation right away. However, beware of making of changes to URLs of pages that have already been indexed in Google and other search engines. Changing the URL is like creating a completely new page. You’ll lose any existing value that may have accumulated on the old page, essentially starting over.

If your alpaca web pages have been around for some time, look for an SEO expert to help guide your efforts. If you’re just starting out, be shrewd in your evaluation of any alpaca web site systems you’re considering. Talk to SEO Alpaca about web site solutions for new and existing alpaca web sites today!

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About SEO Alpaca: SEO Alpaca was created by SEO Advantage, an SEO firm serving the alpaca community with online marketing, web design, and SEO services since 2000. Learn more about custom alpaca website design and search engine optimization today at www.seoalpaca.com.

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