URL Optimization | Best Practices To Create SEO-Friendly URL Structure

Are your URLs SEO-friendly?

Now this term SEO-friendly is kind of tricky when it comes to URLs; both Web developers and SEO professionals have different approach towards URL Structure. Question is, do search engines consider URLs as ranking factor for the webpages? Well, it is important to have SEO-Friendly URL for a website, as they are considered to be one of the most important ranking factor.

When we search phrases on Google, Bot tries to search and crawl various websites, to find best webpages that would provide exact information that you are searching for. In this searching process, Search engines look for keywords in various areas, and one of the area is URL Structure; you will get a clear idea when you see the below image. Google highlights the search term in the titles, descriptions and URLs too.

Check out some tips to make your URL Structure to be SEO-Friendly

Must Be Keyword-Rich

Keywords are like foundation, where your building is SEO of your website; So, foundation should be strong to build great SEO. When doing keyword research, make sure you have set of targeted keywords for every page, that are relevant. Include top keywords in the URL, which increases your SEO strength.

Short and Simple

Shorter URLs are always recommended. URLs that have series of numbers, folders, sub-folders or categories, wouldn’t look appealing and click-through-rate (CTR) would decrease. Instead, shorten the URL, with simple keywords that are relevant and folders/categories names that are necessary.

Note: URLs should never be longer than 2,048 characters; otherwise Internet Explorer won’t be able to load the page. (Source)

Make it Readable

Smart internet users, look for the their search terms in the URL that is appeared in the snippets. So, when users are becoming smart, you have to be more smarter. So, include keywords and also make it readable and understandable. Search Engines as well as users look for good, neat and understandable URL.

Check out below example:

Webpage: Designer Cakes

www.abcd.com/cakes/post?ID=564=designer+cake
www.abcd.com/cakes/best-designer-cakes-ideas/

In the above example, which is more appealing to read? Obviously, Second URL isn’t?

Incorporate Titles in URL

If your website is having a blog, then incorporating titles of your blog posts in the URL is very beneficial, that makes your URL look relevant and appealing in the search results. Search Engines also rank blog posts when they satisfy various SEO factors, by making page title as URL, you are moving a step forward in increasing SEO strength of your blog post. Even if your website doesn’t have a blog, every page has a Title isn’t?

Include the title as URL of the page.

Making titles as URLs has couple of benefits like: Optimized Titles have targeted keywords, so URLs become keyword targeted.

Secondly, Users get to see title in the URL too, which increases click-through-rate. And lastly, Search Engines look for optimized URLs.

Note: If your Titles are having stop words like: the, a, and, or, this etc; it is better to avoid them in the URL. Even if they are present in URL, there is no harm but unnecessarily the length of the URL would increase; So it is better to avoid them.

Quick Points

  • Include targeted keywords
  • Use hyphens to separate words
  • Make it short and understandable
  • Don’t exceed 2,048 characters
  • Incorporate Title as URL
  • Exclude numbers and special characters
  • Exclude stop words

These were simple tips to make your URLs SEO-friendly. Share more tips on SEO with us.

About the author 

Jeremy Ley

Jeremy Ley went from struggling, slaving away at the J-O-B as wireless sales rep to starting and running a successful digital marketing business.  In his spare time he enjoys the digital lifestyle, working out, and writing incredible bios. 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked

{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}