Thread

I am just about done the main parts of my new rebuild and instead of using categories and excessive templates I have used many “if then else” statements to get the job done.  Who else here is a fan of laying it on thick for the sake of saving a little space.

All depends on how easy it will be when you come to adding more ‘categories’ or your equivalent. If it were to mean you had to go back into a template and add in more if else structures then I would definitely lean heavily towards using in built methods and tags but if there is no built in way of doing what you want then whatever works best for yourself I always say.

I’m just a fan of what’s easiest for now and also the most easiest to add on to / upgrade in the future down the line 😉

Best wishes,

Mark

That is true and the structure that I needed was very custom.  I am always looking for a new way to do something easy and upgradeable without a lot of heavy lifting.  I spend so much time thinking it through I usually fall back to what will be best for SEO, meaning how deep will the url structure end up going if I use categories. The SEO impact part always wins in the end but makes things like you say a bit heavier when more conditionals need to be added. I am still looking into new and better ways but with EE the 3 doors in front of me always mean that there are 3 doors beyond that one and so on. Of all the EE sites I have built I have never used categories but found when I did try to use them they confined my creativity, I am a bit of a designer but more a developer designer.

I think this is great if you are working on your own project, but if it’s client work and other people may have to jump into your code later, sometimes using more templates will save someone else a lot of head scratching.

...I usually fall back to what will be best for SEO, meaning how deep will the url structure end up going if I use categories. The SEO impact part always wins in the end…

SEO efforts in code receives far more attention than it deserves. For Google, what’s important is relevant content, links to the content from other sites, and not much else. Keyword/title/URL string density plays a part, but is nominal compared to content and links.

...I usually fall back to what will be best for SEO, meaning how deep will the url structure end up going if I use categories. The SEO impact part always wins in the end…

SEO efforts in code receives far more attention than it deserves. For Google, what’s important is relevant content, links to the content from other sites, and not much else. Keyword/title/URL string density plays a part, but is nominal compared to content and links.

Ditto what was just said 😉

In the end content is king. I generally try not to think too much about the URL structure unless it starts taking away from what is shown on the page. The content, inbound links and general syntax of the page is much more important.

Best wishes,

Mark

That might be true in some respect with SEO but I do the other SEO work also, fresh content and posting, etc.  I think one can have a jolly old time with the URLs going 5 deep and google will glaze over it.  I have seen it first hand and no matter how much gray SEO you do things don’t really improve so much.  Now I am not saying that other sites have not overcome this but I see the benefit of the closer you are to the url the better and a category just gunks things up, when it’s all about the edge over the competition.

I think a lot of people have used categories and tags just because there are there…IMHO they should be looked at as organizational tools vs. URL/SEO tool.
<rant>
If all you ever going to have is one entry in this category then why bother; the same for tags. All it does is makes the spiders crawl though URL segment that has very little to offer. I hate the fact that the tags have now become ‘allowed’ gateway to keyword spam and fake content.
eg. tags: housing market, car, rentals, Norway .... while the content consists of “I moved from house x to house y and I live in Norway”. Seems like people enter something because they feel obligated to ‘categorize and tag’.
</rant>
I tend to ask…would I create a whole new folder (url segment/cat/tag) if I did not have categories and tags at disposal? Would I buy a filing cabinet or would one binder with dividers work?

On the other hand, it is very easy to get cough in looped If-then especially with embeds so I would still take more templates with less less conditions…
Bottom line for me is build URLs for people not spiders or provide good navigation so that URLs really don’t have to be that memorable and clean…

I think a lot of people have used categories and tags just because there are there…IMHO they should be looked at as organizational tools vs. URL/SEO tool.

Wisdom Alert!!

I’ve yet to figure out the value in “tags” but categories, sections, weblogs, channels, et al, are nothing more than organizational tools. EE makes ‘em easy, so EE users can find complicated ways to use ‘em.

...I would still take more templates with less less conditions…

That tends to be my method as well, though, to be fair, work flow, experience, user ability, future users, etc., all fall into play here.

Bottom line for me is build URLs for people not spiders or provide good navigation so that URLs really don’t have to be that memorable and clean…

EE’s basic method of template_group/template/entry_name is about all that’s really necessary for good SEO (which, mentioned earlier, is far more dependent on relevant content and links to the content than keyword/tag density which reaches a point of diminishing returns very quickly).

Adding a category_name to the URL string does little, if anything at all, for SEO. In fact, it could be argued that even building URLs for people is an effort in diminishing returns. Who types in whole URLs, friendly or complex, anymore? It’s more likely that any URL to an entry or a category or a static page or another site is linked and clicked to 99.99% of the time.

This may look prettier—http://mysite.com/killroywashere— but has no advantage in SEO or user friendliness over this—http://mysite.com/index.php/news/local/killroy_was_here_tag_tag_tag.

I have to say and I am serious when I say this.  EE forums have some of the most intelligent thought provoking ppl around.  Though not everything is correct all the time it’s the shared experience that brings those thoughts into a more relevant light.  One could go on to say we function as a collective group and no one really shoving information down anyones throat or pleading that they are so right you have to listen.  It’s a great co-op of programmers, developers and designers in one place and I am happy to be apart.  I don’t also mind telling someone there idea sucks or is the best thing around, it’s civil here and one can actual learn.  Now that I went off topic I want to say “you all suck and are very cool people, for the most part, kinda of”...lol.

Good stuff and thanks for all the opinions thus far.

I want to say “you all suck and are very cool people, for the most part, kinda of…”

Yep, we’re a definitive crowd.

:ahhh:

Though not everything is correct all the time…

Well, we’re only human now aren’t we? 😉

Value of “tags” ...is in the fact that you can tag something LOL.
On a serious note, sometimes you just have to say no to SEO obsession.
...and don’t call me human, I prefer well trained spam bot, thank you very much! 😊

Value of “tags” ...is in the fact that you can tag something.

Works for me.

On a serious note, sometimes you just have to say no to SEO obsession.

True, that. And so say no to the Best Practices Police™, the Standardistas™, and all of us who obsess over that which matters not much.

...and don’t call me human, I prefer well trained spam bot, thank you very much!

I prefer “devbot.” Or, “EEpeeps.”

And so say no to the Best Practices Police™, the Standardistas™, and all of us who obsess over that which matters

Oh, any time I open IE I say it multiple times…“no no no no not again” :lol: