Business Directory Categories

Hi there,

I am developing a business directory for my local town which will include business listings, jobs and events.

I am in the process of setting up the categories for the business listings and have a few questions about how I should name them.

Should I be including the type of business/service in each URL, for example /clothing or clothing-shops-and-services? I’m wondering if just /clothing would suffice or if it is useful having the words “shops” and “services” in the structure as there could be a clothing shop in the town and also someone that offers clothing services?

And the same for “Business and Office” - should this be /business-and-office-shops-and-services? I don’t think this sounds right. There could be shops that sell business furniture and also a company that offers business services? I’m guessing just having the category name would be best, so just /business-and-office.

Also, if I am using similar categories for jobs, should I use the same SEF URL?

So for example, if I have a business listing category for food and drink which could be something like:

/business-and-shops/food-and-drink

and also a job category, something like /jobs/food-and-drink, can these be the same?

Any suggestions and advice would be great, thanks!

 

With the exception of a domain, I never concern myself with how a URL 'sounds'. Page URLs are for search engines. And I typically remove "and" from a URL, unless I specifically think that someone is going to do a search on, for example, "food and drink". As long as you aren't duplicating a URL, you can use whatever keywords you want..
But before committing to any URL, I make certain I have researched the keywords so that I can make the best decision regarding their choices. No reason to use a keyword that isn't well searched.