URL folders and filenames

Classic General
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I just bought the Rapidweaver SEO course and started it and have a question about the first module - URL writing. Ideally I would like to ask Ben Counsell about this.

I just started the Rapidweaver SEO training course which looks so far to be great. The course recommends using the “folder” field to enter the URL and keeping the “filename” field as index.html (or in my case index.php) however when I first built my website the advice was, to keep URLs simple, to enter a “/” into the "folder’ field and use the “filename” field for the URL (e.g. “our-coffee.php”). This was before Rapidweaver automatically removed the filename.

So should I change my website now to enter the URL in the “folder” field and amend the “filename” field to index.php… or is it just the same outcome to keep the “/” in the “folder” field and keep the URL in the “filename” field?

@realmacsoftware

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I would recommend changing it now to using folders names with an index.php inside. Search engines will prioritize an index file within a directory. Having multiple directories also provides better context for the bots that index your site.

What do you think @bon?

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Thanks Brandon… can you clarify the situation regarding naming URLs when you have subpages…If we leave the filename as index.php/index.html and create your URL in the folder field on the page inspector… all fine… but i’m a bit confused about how to create URLs for pages that are added to the website as subpages… say a ‘prints’ page with ‘landscape’ prints subpage and ‘animal’ prints subpageDo we have the choice in the folder field on the page inspector when creating the URLs for these pages to either:-OPTION 1: Create URLs for each page like this :
Page 1: folder field: prints
Page 2: folder field: landscape
Page 3: folder field: animalsOR OPTION 2: Create URLs like this:
Page 1: folder field: prints
Page 2: folder field: /prints/landscape
Page 3: folder field: /prints/animalsand is this choice independent of how the pages are added to the website project - i.e. can you only use option 2 if they are added to the project as subpages or is that irrelevant when naming URLsThanks
Debbie

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Just name the folder. RW will take care of the rest.
If it’s a subpage RW will put it in a subfolder for you.

Print/index.php. Top level page
Print/Landscape/index.php. Sub page under Print
Print/Portrait/index.php. Sub page under Print

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@swilliam Scott is correct here.
But it might be that the main parent “print” page is visible in the navigation, but not clickable (theme depending).

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My advice is always be careful when changing an existing site — especially if it is already ranking well (not sure if this is the case?). If it’s not broke, don’t fix it!

Having said that, I would recommend using the folder structure as shown in the SEO course — definitely so for new pages.

If you change to using folder names (e.g. going from /our-coffee.php to /our-coffee), ensure you setup a 301 redirect from the old page to the new. Something like:

Redirect 301 /our-coffee.php https://www.my-website.com/our-coffee

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