Enhanced Search Engine Optimization with the new Demandware URL Rules Module
You can spot a Demandware site from a mile away. It’s not the polished exterior or the advanced functionality. The URL gives it away every time. That’s right, /on/demandware.store/Sites-<yourco>-Site/ and if you are using your SEO Support module you get a little bit of prettiness with the default,pg.html pattern. If you spent a bunch of time you’ve always been able to do static mappings to get shortcut URLs. The new Demandware 13.1 release will let you go on the down low with URLs thanks to the new URL Rules module. It also gives you increased search engine optimization opportunities with more meaningful URLs.
The URL Rules module is controlled in Business Manager, the Demandware administrative GUI and helps you optimize your site in the following ways:
- URLs do not contain a page type indicator or a proprietary extension “sc.html”
- URLs are short and meaningful
- URLs do not contain “demandware“
Control is also available to lowercase all product names and other elements in URLs. This prevents search engines from counting capitalization differences as duplicate URLs thereby increasing URL concentration.
If you use the localization feature of Demandware you’ll find a new ability to control how locale is specified. You can put it in the path, as a querystring parameter or even map unique hostnames per locale. Additional controls are available to control URLs for category pages, content folders and assets.
Lyons Consulting Group is ready to get your Demandware site up and running with the new URL Rules with a full set of services including SEO consulting, configuration, code base analysis to ensure forward compatibility and marching these changes into your production environment.
