URL structure for magazine website publish by year / issue

Started by luxlugosi, 04-30-2013, 04:31:43

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luxlugosiTopic starter

Hi.
We are developing a website for a print magazine that is published every month.
The website content will also be published once a month as one complete issue.
Each issue has 12 numbers for each year.
We hope to get site links after a while that show the most current issues and are wondering how to best structure the URL's of the site.
Is it better to use

http://the-magazine.com/2013/issue-number/issue-title/category/article-title
or
http://the-magazine.com/2013/issue-number-issue-title/category/article-title
or
http://the-magazine.com/2013-issue-number-issue-title/category/article-title

The first version seems most logical, but we are worried that the site links would show as 2012, 2013, 2014... rather than showing the most current issues.
Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.
Thanks.
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kormeysin

For a monthly magazine that is published every month with 12 issues per year, it is important to consider the structure of the URLs for the website to ensure easy navigation and clear organization.

Given the frequency of publication and the need for differentiation between issues for each year, I would recommend using the following URL structure:

http://the-magazine.com/year/issue-number/issue-title/category/article-title

This structure clearly delineates the publication year, the specific issue number within that year, and the title of the article. It provides a clear hierarchy and allows for easy navigation and understanding of the content.

As for concerns about displaying the most current issues, you can address this by prominently featuring the most recent year and its issues on the main page of the website. You can also use metadata to indicate the most current issues for search engines.

In summary, the recommended URL structure provides a clear and organized approach while allowing for showcasing the most current issues on the website.

From reading your question, I would presume that you are correct when you want to lean towards http://the-magazine.com/2013/issue-number/issue-title/category/article-title this is what I would do, because then managing it will also be easy. If you are concerned that your visitors may land on past issues of your magazines, then perhaps creating a section <div>Here's our latest issue etc.</div> which shows your latest magazines on any & all of your landing pages (regardless of the issue year or month etc.) would be ideal in my opinion.
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luxlugosiTopic starter

Thank you kormeysin.
Yes we will do this anyway. The question is more about what impact the url structure will have on the search results, specifically Site Links.
We now think that we will go for #2 http://the-magazine.com/2013/issue-number-issue-title/category/article-title as this does not separate the issue number and title.
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