Utilizing url structure to your advantage can actually help with your search engine optimization. There are quite a few ways to make sure you’re benefiting. One thing to keep in mind is the shorter the url, the better. Best practice shows that a url under 60 characters is best. Sometimes you can go over the 60 character mark without encountering problems, but make sure it’s for a good reason.
Using Keywords in Your URL
It’s definitely better to have keywords in your url than to not, but keep in mind that this isn’t the place to stuff. Having too many keywords in your url can work against you, just as it would for on-page SEO. Be sure to do your keyword research first and pick the most important (and relevant) keywords for your urls as you go along. If you can, try not to go beyond five words and don’t forget to keep it under 60 characters.
The Length of Your URL
As mentioned above, the length of your url should be under 60 characters. To cut down on your character count, don’t use abbreviations or really short words. Even though dashes between your words can lengthen your url, it’s important to distinguish between words. Search engines may not be able to interpret a jumble of words, so try to separate keywords with dashes or underscores.
Using Directories in Your URL
If you have a large website, using directories in your url can be helpful for organizing as well as for SEO. They are also an opportunity to define categories and break up the subject on your webpage. Don’t go crazy though, search engines don’t like anything overly complex.
URL Canonicalization
Canonicalization is the process by which URLs are standardized. In other words, a website can have the same content on two different urls, but the search engine sees them as different pages and duplicate content, which can hard SEO. Here’s what I mean:
- www.example.com
- www.example.com/index
- www.example.com/index.html
- www.example.com/home
All of these pages may seem the same to an end user, but to the search engine, they are all different. There are a few ways to resolve this issue, but a 301redirect is a good way to assure the issue won’t affect your SEO.
Remember to keep these few tips in mind if you’re crafting your url structure or looking to update your current, they will help your SEO and even help the user identify your website structure why navigating through your website.
