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Best Practices for SEO-Friendly URL Structure in 2024 – A Brief Guide

seo friendly url structure

The structure of your URLs is incredibly important when it comes to SEO. The structure of your URL can be an important ranking factor and is something that you need to take care of. When it comes to SEO, there are many things that are in your control, and you can use best practices for seo-friendly url structure to get the best results for ranking your website

Introduction – URL and SEO

A URL stands for universal resource locator, your website address, and all the other pages off the back of that as well. You have a URL for every page on your website, and it is also at a very high level on the homepage of your website. 

The question is: how does that relate to SEO?

How Does Page URL Structure Impact Your SEO?

To understand how page URL structure affects your SEO, you should have a basic understanding of what exactly a URL page structure is and why it is incredibly important for your URLs to be structured correctly. 

Also, there are some best practices for creating URL structures and slugs to help improve both – user experience and search engine optimization. URLs are essential for maximizing user experience, too. The users of websites hover their mouse over the URLs to see whether this is a link they want to visit, and then they go from there. 

google seo friendly url structure

What Exactly is A URL Structure?

Let us start with the basics and develop an understanding of what exactly a URL structure is. Essentially, URL structure refers to the format of a web address, including the following:

  • Protocol (HTTP/ HTTPS)
  • Domain Name (Randomexample.com)
  • Optional Subdomains (Blog.Example.com)
  • Directories (Example.com/category name)
  • Specific Resource Identifiers (any specific file name or link to a video or whatnot)

You get the point – there are loads of variations, and in terms of SEO, it is more often about the end bits of the URL – past the domain, which is also known as the slug. 

bad url examples

The slug can be formatted differently; it can be structured hierarchically, or it can be flat. It can be all sorts of things, and it comes down to how you structure it. 

The Importance of URL Structure for SEO

Now, you might be wondering why the URL structure is incredibly important for your SEO. There are a few things that you should know that will perfectly demonstrate the importance.

good url design

It Boosts Rankings

The first reason why a URL structure is important for SEO is that it helps with boosting your site’s rankings in an indirect manner. How, you might ask? Well, here is the thing: Google considers the structure of your URLs at the time of determining where exactly to place your sites in search results. 

Google assesses the URL structure and determines whether it is friendly and easy to understand. It also assesses the hierarchy and the relationships between the pages there. 

If the users are more likely to engage with the site and pages, then it will also help indirectly boost your website’s rankings. User behavior sends signals to Google, which then indirectly impacts the website’s rankings. 

It May Increase the CTR 

Descriptive URLs that essentially match the search intent – are more likely to be clicked by users. For instance, users are searching for office chairs, and the URL has that exact term in it – that URL is relevant. So users are more likely to click on it. 

which url is most reliable

It Boosts User Experience

Another reason why URL structure is important in terms of SEO is that it helps boost user experience. It makes it easier for users to understand the content before clicking on the link, and it also makes it simpler to navigate throughout the site because the user knows what to expect, where they are going, what page it is on, and where it is located. 

It Encourages Link Building 

When the URL structure is SEO friendly, it also encourages link building. The underlying reason is that it is clear and relevant, which is why other website owners are more likely to want to link back to your content. 

URLs will basically tell the users exactly what it is about, and people are more likely to find you because it is quite obvious what the content is about. 

international seo url structure

What Are Some of the Most Common URL Issues in SEO?

There are several common URL issues that you might come across when it comes to establishing the best permalink structure in SEO. Here are a few of such issues:

  • Forgetting to update existing URLs.
  • Forgetting to redirect old URLs.

Suppose you change the webpage and update the existing URL. In this case, you need to ensure that you “301” or permanently redirect the old URL so that it passes on any of the link equity that the page or that URL has obtained from backlinks and other pages so that it doesn’t end in a 404 error.

Using the wrong redirect type. 

Now, there is no right or wrong, but using a redirect that might not be appropriate can be an issue. For instance, when using a “302” or temporary redirect type when, in fact, you want to move that page permanently to the new URL, it will be wise to use a “301” or a permanent redirect. 

Failing to regularly assess and fix broken links. 

Now, things can happen and one can forget to redirect a URL that one changed, so it is important to constantly check your site and ensure that you detect any 404 errors. If you use SEO software, it can do that automatically for you: it can scan and flag any “404” errors, which will be helpful. 

So, you must be sure to keep your URLs updated so that they are relevant to the page content. So, if you happen to completely change or update the topic, make sure to update the URL accordingly. 

What Are Some of the Best Practices for SEO-Friendly URL Structure?

Here are some of the best practices for SEO-friendly URL structure:

Only Include Relevant Keywords 

When it comes to building your URL structures in an SEO-friendly manner, the first thing is to include relevant keywords that are super easy to understand. Make sure that the keywords are relevant to the content on that page.

The worst you can do is to pick some random keywords. Also, you don’t want to force a keyword within the URL only because you want to rank for that keyword. You want to make absolutely sure that the keyword is the main content of the web content and that it is prevalent in the URL. 

seo add url

Do Not Use Unnecessary Characters

To build URLs in an SEO friendly manner, you must avoid unnecessary parameters or characters to remove any sort of complexity. The URL should be easy to read and easy to understand, which is why simplicity is key here. 

Separate Words with Hyphens

To create SEO-friendly URLs, you should absolutely use hyphens. Some people make the mistake of using underscores – however – instead of underscores, just use hyphens, and you will create an SEO-friendly URL. The underlying is that Google and other search engines understand that hyphens separate words, whereas underscores combine words. 

So, make sure to use hyphens as a way to separate words in a URL. Another reason to use hyphens is that it improves readability.

Create Concise URLs

To make the URLs SEO-friendly, make sure to create short and descriptive links. You should really avoid creating long links because they will be hard for someone to remember, and it will take some time to type the URL. Also, it is going to look ugly when it is overly long. 

You get the point – you should avoid including unnecessary words. Just make sure that the URL is logical, predictable, and consistent with the content of the site. 

Avoid Dynamic Parameters within the URL

Another very important thing that depends on how your website works is to avoid the use of dynamic parameters, as this is one of the top rules for establishing a good international seo url structure. Essentially, a dynamic parameter is something that you see in a URL when there is an instruction on your website to dynamically serve content through the URL. 

You might have seen a URL with a question mark or an equal sign as well as numbers, which directs the website browser to go to a particular element. This aspect is known as dynamic parameters, and it is something that you should avoid at all costs, as these can cause issues when optimizing your keywords. 

Avoid Stop Words

Stop words within the URL are words that break the keyword. A lot of times, you have a keyword that doesn’t include a stop word. For instance, in the following phrase, “lawyers-in-london,” “in” is the stop word, and “Lawyers London” would be the keyword. 

So, in your URL, you should go with “lawyer-london” as opposed to “lawyer-in-london.” You get the point – stop words make bad URL examples, so you should eliminate all stop words and focus on the keywords within your URL because the stop word will add extra information, and it will affect the relevancy as well. 

Limit the Number of Folders

Another thing that you should do is to decrease the number of folders and the website’s hierarchy by limiting it down to as low as you can where necessary.  Technically, what this means is that every single time you have a forward slash in your URL, you go down a level in your website’s hierarchy. 

The more forward slashes you have, the less important your URLs become, the less interpretable they become, and the readability decreases as well. 

To establish a good URL design, you can essentially limit the number of hierarchies within a website – or – you can change the structure of your URLs to ensure that you keep them short but also provide the user with enough information. 

Double-Check Case Sensitivity

You will also want to look at your case sensitivity as it establishes which url is most reliable. Now, what this means is that all of your URLs should, generally speaking, go to lowercase. Every now and again, there are URLs that have uppercase words and lowercase words within a page. 

Now, in some areas, this might cause issues because if somebody goes into their browser and types your URL in but doesn’t have the right casing of the URL – they may be faced with an error page because the website cannot be found as the casing on the letters isn’t done right. 

To establish an SEO-friendly URL, we recommend going with the lower case because this is the default way people place URLs in browsers. It is also a good way to make your URL structure clear and consistent as well. 

How to Use URLs to Maximize User Experience 

By improving URLs and integrating a google seo friendly url structure, you can essentially maximize user experience. You want to make the right URL changes so that these can lead to improved website navigation. Yes, you read this right. Improved URLs can make website navigation easier and clearer. 

You will also have a better understanding of where you are in the hierarchy so you can efficiently navigate up, down, or wherever you want to – just by looking at the URL. 

The better the URL is – or – let us say, the more SEO-friendly the URL is, the more effective it will prove to help visitors understand the content of the page before they click on it. By seeing the URL, potential visitors can decide whether or not it is relevant to them, and then they can click through to see if it is relevant to them. 

Final Thoughts

When it comes to the best practices for seo-friendly url structure, you should follow a certain set of rules, including the rule of avoiding keyword stuffing. Don’t add loads of keywords to your URLs. Just make sure they are consistent. Of course, you should mention your keyword in the URL – but don’t mention it multiple times, and don’t stuff loads and loads of keywords into your URL. This is a spammy technique, and it will definitely hurt your website – not only from Google’s perspective but from a user’s point of view as well. 

Again, keep your URLs short and to the point, and keep them focused as well. 

FAQs

What makes a good URL structure for SEO?

A good URL structure uses HTTPs protocol and the www prefix. It also includes relevant keywords and is short and simple to boost readability. 

What is an SEO-friendly URL structure?

An SEO-friendly URL structure meets the user’s needs and helps Google understand what the content of the webpage is about. SEO-friendly URLs are typically short and descriptive. 

Do keywords in URLs affect SEO?

Yes – but they might not have a major impact on SEO. Still, it is crucial to include relevant keywords to boost the site’s search visibility and boost your website traffic.