[Proposal] - Refactoring URL structure for improved UX and SEO after Docusaurus migration

[amirhouieh]

Relates to #84.

As part of our ongoing transition to Docusaurus, we've encountered an issue regarding our current URL structure which appears to be suboptimal for both User Experience (UX) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Moreover, these issues necessitate modifications to our Logos Docusaurus plugin to maintain URL consistency post-migration.

Current URL Structure:

Our website, vac.dev, broadly consists of two types of pages:

1. Pages under /research
2. Static pages like /terms, /about, /principles and others.

Currently, we serve all research articles directly at the root level, i.e., vac.dev/<article-name>, while the content exists under /research/<article-name>. This means all other pages cannot be served at the root level, causing an inconvenience such as serving our Terms page under /about/terms.

However, we acknowledge that the existing URLs for research posts have been widely shared within our community and other channels. As such, any changes to them may lead to a negative impact.

Proposed Solution:

To mitigate the above issue and to streamline our URL structure, we propose the following:

• Serve all research posts under vac.dev/research/*
• Implement permanent (301) redirects for all currently published posts. This means any access to vac.dev/<anything-that-is-under-research> will be redirected to vac.dev/research/*
• Serve all other static pages directly at the root level, following the example of https://dev.logos.co.

This approach not only resolves our current issue but also ensures better organization and improved SEO performance. We look forward to the team's thoughts and any potential concerns about this change.

[kaiserd]

Agree with your proposed url scheme. Thanks for bringing this up :).
The only concern I have is a potential confusion of research with the Vac deep research unit.
The research log is for all Vac units, as well as post outside of Vac, e.g. Waku network.

Maybe vac.dev/rlog/*? Maybe also call the link Rlog? Or "Research Log" if there is enough space.

[amirhouieh]

Agree with your proposed url scheme. Thanks for bringing this up :). The only concern I have is a potential confusion of research with the Vac deep research unit. The research log is for all Vac units, as well as post outside of Vac, e.g. Waku network.

Maybe vac.dev/rlog/*? Maybe also call the link Rlog? Or "Research Log" if there is enough space.

Ok great!
vac.dev/rlog/* sound good solution.

@kaiserd who else we need to get agree on this? or are we good to go?

[amirhouieh]

@jeangovil once this is confirm here are the changes should happen:

• apply the url scheme as proposed
• research becomes rlog in both content and the url.
• Title of research becomes Rlog - Vac Research Log
• hide sidebar for /research/* and /research
• show breadcrumbs on each /research/* page not (/research)
• move all pages currently being served under /about to the root
• move Resources to navbar (only if we have a simpler design than the drop down component from LSD)
• rename main to about
• Generate or Add manually 301 redirects for existing posts.

[kaiserd]

@amirhouieh it should be good to go.

Just to be sure, what is currently research should be renamed to rlog.
So the posts that are in the research dir should move into the rlog dir.
After this move, we can delete research.

It would be good to have something like Rlog - Vac Reserach Log as a heading to make explicit what rlog is.

[amirhouieh]

@amirhouieh it should be good to go.

Just to be sure, what is currently research should be renamed to rlog. So the posts that are in the research dir should move into the rlog dir. After this move, we can delete research.

It would be good to have something like Rlog - Vac Reserach Log as a heading to make explicit what rlog is.

Ah gotcha, i thought rlog will be a separate new directory.

[kaiserd]

Sorry for the confusion 😅

[amirhouieh]

@jeangovil once this is confirm here are the changes should happen:

• apply the url scheme as proposed
• research becomes rlog in both content and the url.
• Title of research becomes Rlog - Vac Reserach Log
• hide sidebar for /research/* and /research
• show breadcrumbs on each /research/* page not (/research)
• move all pages currently being served under /about to the root
• move Resources to navbar (only if we have a simpler design than the drop down component from LSD)
• rename main to about
• Generate or Add manually 301 redirects for existing posts.

@jeangovil please proceed. thanks 🙏

[kaiserd]

Title of research becomes Rlog - Vac Reserach Log

I misspelled that. Sorry. It should be:
Rlog - Vac Research Log

[jeangovil]

We have updated the website and moved all research posts to the /rlog path. However, redirecting requests made to old URLs will happen on the client side. This is because the website is served by an Nginx server with a generic configuration, hence not customizable.