SEO segmentation is the practice of splitting a website’s URLs or keywords into groups that share a characteristic, so that each group can be analyzed and monitored by itself. The term here means groups of data, not audience or market segments.
How are segments built?
seoClarity names three approaches:
- By page type or content, for example product pages, category pages and the home page.
- By directory or URL pattern, for example all URLs that contain
/men/. - By keyword, for example brand against non-brand queries, by search intent or by search volume.
Agility PR adds content-based criteria such as word count or publication date, and traffic-based groups by source or device. Rules for URL groups are often written as patterns on the path or taken from the template a page uses.
Why segment?
Averages hide differences. seoClarity points out that a site-wide traffic gain can mask a loss in one section, and that groups show which areas gained or lost. In monitoring, segments help to set alert rules per group, since a product template and a blog may need different thresholds.
Example
In this constructed example, a retailer splits its URLs into four segments through path patterns.
| Segment | Pattern | URLs |
|---|---|---|
| Products | /p/ |
18,000 |
| Categories | /c/ |
1,200 |
| Articles | /magazine/ |
650 |
| Other | all remaining | 300 |
A drop of 15 percent in clicks across the site is traced to the category segment, where a faceted navigation change removed internal links.
Common mistakes
- Patterns that overlap, so a URL belongs to two segments.
- Too many segments, which leaves each group too small for reliable figures.
- Rules that no one updates when the URL structure changes.
Sources
- How to Use SEO Segmentation to Scale SEO Success – seoClarityseoclarity.net
- How to use SEO segmentation – Agility PR Solutionsagilitypr.com
- Page Templates – WordPress Theme Handbookdeveloper.wordpress.org
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