When building a website, there are many components that need to come together successfully. Everything from the way the site is coded to how web pages and content are structured impacts the user experience, and in turn, your SEO.
However, when it comes to getting your site pages more easily indexed on search engine results and ranking higher, there is another crucial element to consider – your URL naming conventions.
Having a well-structured URL not only allows you to identify what a website page is about clearly, but it can also improve click-through rates and site visibility. Below, we’ll explain why this is the case as well as outline 10 best practices you can follow when creating SEO-friendly URLs.
Understanding URL Structure
Each URL on a website has the same structure, with each element designed for a different purpose.
Components of a URL
- Protocol (HTTP vs HTTPS) – In front of a website URL, the first thing you’ll notice is the acronym HTTP or HTTPS. These stand for Hypertext Transfer Protocol and Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, which are used to send data between a web browser and a website.
- Subdomain – These are an optional extension of a main URL. They’re used to help create better organization between more distinct sections of a website, such as “blog.example.com.”
- Domain Name – This is the primary website address used to navigate to the home page.
- Top-Level Domain (TLD) – These are the ending suffixes used in a website. For example, “.com”, “.ca”, “.gov,” or “.org.”
- Path / Slug – These are used after the TLD to indicate a specific location of a webpage. Paths are the location of a page, such as “category/programs/,” while the slug is the final and customizable part of the path, such as “category/programs/slug.”
10 SEO URL Best Practices
When structuring your URLs, there are certain best practices you can follow that can help to improve your SEO efforts.
1. Use Relevant Keywords in URLs
Make sure that whenever possible, you’re including your primary page keyword in the URL. This achieves two goals.
First, it gives your readers more context on the pages they’re navigating to before they click on. Secondly, it helps search engine crawlers gain context on the site’s structure, allowing them to index and categorize your site accurately.
2. Keep URLs Short and Simple
Try to get into the habit of designing your URL structures so they’re as concise and user-friendly as possible. Avoid keyword stuffing your URLs, as this will only hurt your SEO efforts.
3. Use Hyphens Instead of Underscores
When you’re using a string of words in your URL, make sure you’re using hyphens to separate words, not underscores. Google crawlers automatically interpret hyphens as spaces to associate individual keywords with a webpage. If you use an underscore, Google will think the words are combined and could impact your ranking efforts for specific terms.
4. Stick With Lowercase Letters
It’s considered best practice to get into the habit of only using lowercase letters when constructing URLs. While it’s often not as important as other SEO tactics, certain web servers are case sensitive and can interpret uppercase letters differently. This includes treating capitalized words as separate URLs that can cause duplicate content issues.
5. Avoid Special Characters and Dynamic Parameters
You want to make sure that you don’t use special characters in your URLs. This includes characters like “?”, “&”, or “=”. These symbols can cause crawling errors and can come across to users as spammy or untrustworthy.
6. Eliminate Stop Words
URLs should be created as concisely as possible. Part of this process means removing any stop words that commonly appear in longer keyword phrases. Some common stop words include “an,” “the,” “a,” or “of.” These words aren’t necessary from an SEO perspective and will only increase the length and complexity of the URL without adding any real value.
7. Don’t Include Dates in URLs
While certain websites may find it helpful to use date markers in their URLs, it’s best practice to avoid this if possible. Using dates can actually make your content seem irrelevant to web crawlers over time. Even when the content is based on evergreen topics, older dates may be ranked lower than newer web content published after the fact.
8. Use HTTPS
An essential element that Google looks for when ranking websites higher in SERPs is whether or not they utilize HTTPS. It’s critical to ensure this protocol is used across all your URLs, as it encrypts all data between a user’s browser and the website. This makes your site look more credible, which in turn helps with your SEO.
9. Match URLs to Page Hierarchy
When creating URLs, make sure they match the same hierarchy you’ve already established on your site. The navigation elements on your site should reflect the same organized structure you use for grouping your site paths and slugs, making it easier for crawlers to understand the relationship between each site page.
10. Avoid Auto-Generated Blog Post Titles
Many modern CMS platforms include plugins and other site elements that can automatically generate URL slugs for you. However, most of the time, these autogenerate post tiles are too long and not optimized. Instead, take the few minutes necessary to manually configure each of your URLs so that they incorporate best SEO practices.
FAQs
How long should a URL be for SEO?
Although there isn’t a strict URL character limit, best practice for creating new page titles is to target under 60-70 characters. This should be long enough to allow for a descriptive URL without undermining your SEO.
Can changing URLs hurt my SEO?
Yes, changing a URL can negatively impact SEO if the process is not managed correctly. To preserve link equity and traffic, make sure you’re properly configuring a 301 permanent redirect from the original URL to the new one.
Are dynamic URLs always bad?
Not all the time. Many search engines can now crawl dynamic URLs without many issues. However, static URLs are still the preferred standard since they’re more user-friendly and easier to manage long-term.
Does keyword placement really matter?
Yes, it does. Placing your primary keyword early in the URL path is beneficial. It serves as a strong relevance signal to both users and search engines about the page’s core topic.