Having a URL that is SEO friendly is one of the most important pillars in building a formidable online business, both for positioning in search engines and for achieving an optimal user experience.
To do this, you must know what ‘friendly URLs’ are about in SEO and take into account several factors to apply an effective SEO strategy in terms of URLs.
Do you want to know more about what they are about and how to best apply an SEO friendly URL? We’ll tell you then!
SEO friendly URL what is it?
First, let’s start with some basic terminology that will help you better understand what you want to achieve with a friendly URL.
Let’s start with the definition of a URL. It is an acronym of the English language that means ‘Uniform Resource Locator’ , which is used to specify the web address of a page.
Each web page has a unique URL, that is, two pages within the same domain cannot have the same URL address. This is achieved by:
- The use of the domain name, which is not configurable. That is, ‘ ‘ ‘seoraiseup.com”.
- The set of characters that follow indicating the path to find the page within the domain and which are configurable. That is, ” ‘/seo-friendly-URL”
So what is an SEO-friendly URL? A friendly URL is used to specifically indicate the web address through the use of keywords. This address has to be easy to read for both search engines and your users.
To make this clearer, here is an example of an SEO-friendly URL and another that we should avoid:
- Friendly URL that we should USE : https://seoraiseup.com/seo-friendly-url
- Unfriendly URL that we should AVOID : https://seoraiseup.com/carpeta/R823522/X-3
The first step of all SEO optimization of URLs begins with the use of relevant keywords that are related to the content of the website. However, as we will see below, there are more practices to create friendly URLs.
But before that, let’s look at the different friendly URL structures that exist.
URL structure: The different types that exist
If you want to generate friendly URLs, you need to know that there are several ways to structure them depending on their purpose . A URL for a blog post is not going to be the same as for a product from your e-commerce. Choosing the most appropriate will help you provide more information to both your users and search engines.
With that said, let’s look at the ideal friendly URLs for different types of website:
Corporate pages: This is usually the simplest URL structure. Example:
”https://seoraiseup.com/services/”
E-commerce pages : These URLs can have categories in the path. Example:
”https://seoraiseup.com/category/name-of-the-product
Blog Pages: These URLs typically have a hyphenated path that includes the target keyword. Example:
”https://seoraiseup.com/seo-friendly-url/”
Pages for news portals: These URLs usually include a unique identification code to help position them in search engines. Example:
”https://seoraiseup.com/name-of-the-page-ID”
SEO Optimization: Best Practices for Building Friendly URLs
Next, we are going to explore some SEO URL optimization practices to make these URLs friendly and boost your website pages in the SERP.
Make sure it is simple and clear:
The shorter and clearer the route, the better. Ideally, it should have a maximum length of 100 characters or less.
Inclusion of keywords:
The keyword should always be included in the permanent address of the URL. You should not fill the URL with more than two keywords because it could be seen as spam and your website could end up penalized. In addition, this same keyword should also be used in the H1 header, title and meta description of your page.
Separate words with hyphens:
Google recommends the use of dashes ”-” and not underscores ”_” or spaces. Using hyphens tells both Google and users where the spaces between words are in the phrase that exists within the URL. This makes it easier to read than having all the words put together.
For example:
- What you should NOT do: ” https://seoraiseup.com/diferenciasentreseoysem ”
- What you should do: ” https://seoraiseup.com/diferencias-entre-seo-y-sem”
Use the HTTPS protocol :
If you are using the HTTP protocol, you are probably losing potential customers. An HTTPS protocol is what makes your website more credible, giving users confidence to enter it, since it has a secure connection layer (SLL). This layer helps encrypt communication between your browser and a website, so if you’re the victim of a cyberattack, even if hackers get your data, they can’t read it.
Furthermore, the use of an HTTPS protocol is also a Google ranking signal, as this search engine prefers websites with SSL. In the Chrome browser, this is indicated as a padlock icon.
Redirect old URLs :
You may need to make changes to the structure of your URLs to optimize them. To do this, you have to make sure to add a 301 redirect so that the user and Google can be redirected to the new URL automatically and not run into a broken 404 page .
Use lowercase and not uppercase letters :
Search engines can differentiate between these two typologies, so it can wreak havoc on your SEO strategy because people do not usually search with uppercase letters. For simplicity and clarity, try to stick to lowercase. For example, use: ” /seo-optimization/’ ‘ and not ” /SEO-optimization/’ ‘
Limit the use of folders :
If your web page is divided into many categories, it can be confusing and will make your URL too long. For example: ” https://seoraiseup.com/categoria/formal-clothes/man/silk-tie/blue-tie/blue-tie12/
As you can see, it is a very long structure, so it is recommended to limit the folders to two or less.
Avoid putting dates on your blog posts :
If the post is not related to any specific event or day that is necessary, it is better not to put dates, since it is likely that people will not want to read an outdated post from 2015. Also, can make the URL longer and less clear. For example, you should avoid setting the URL to the following: ” https://mywebsite.com/blog/2022/09/20/post-title”.
Semantic URL: Importance of this URL structure for SEO
Establishing a clear URL structure is important to the information architecture of a website. After all, they are the link between your content and your potential customers.
By using URLs with a logical structure, as opposed to dynamic URLs with characters that don’t follow logic, users can get an idea of what they’ll get if they visit your page.
This helps drive an improved user experience, as they will be able to easily and clearly read an address and once inside, they will obtain information that meets their expectations. For example, if the URL is ” https://seoraiseup.com/seo/ ”, users know that the information within this web address will be related to SEO.
Also, keep in mind that these URLs are displayed on the SERP, the Search Engine Results Page, that is, the search results page. Therefore, having friendly URLs can serve to attract potential visitors, helping you increase the click-through rates (CTR) of your web page.
However, it is not only about facilitating reading and information for users, but also for search engine spiders. In fact, your URL structure is so vital that Google provides instructions on it in their SEO starter guide.
Specifically, Google takes into account a variety of factors involving your URL. Some of these include:
- URL length
- the url path
- Inclusion of URL keywords
- The URL string
Organized URLs make search results meaningful because they promote Google’s PageRank (PR), the way Google measures the value of a web page and its relevance to a search query.
This is because when URLs are organized correctly, it makes it easier for search engines to understand what the contents of your page are about and how they relate to each other. Thus helping Google to position your page correctly and increasing the online exposure of your business.
When it comes to structuring your website for search engines and creating the best experience for your visitors, there are many things to consider. But, you don’t have to take on all that work by yourself. Contact us, at SEOraiseUP we can help you with your SEO strategy, offering specialized and optimal solutions to boost your online business.