The structure of URLs is one of the most fundamental and building blocks of search engine optimization. In this blog post, we will be discussing some of the best SEO practices which will help you in structuring the URLs in a better manner. Though this list is not exhaustive, these are the most basic things which you need to follow while structuring the URL.
Opt for readable URLs
The easier is the URL to read, the better it is regarded by search engines. The more readable is the URL, the higher is the chance of visitors to click on it and visit the website. When we say readable, we do not mean an absolutely clean and perfect URL – rather one which can be easily understood and induces the reader to visit it.
Use keywords in URLs
Using keywords for better rankings of your URLs will surely bring you a lot of benefits. Using keywords in URLs passes on the message that the visitors will get exactly what they are looking for. Apart from this, as the URLs get copied and pasted regularly, the URL will serve as an anchor text, which will eventually help you gain better rankings.
Length of the URLs
The shorter is the URL, the better it is. Thus if the URL consists of more than 100 characters, then it is time that you rephrase/ rewrite and gain benefits. Though search engines like Google can easily process long URLs, shorter URLs are easy to understand, copy-paste, embed as well as share on social media.
Therefore we recommend SEO experts to tailor your URL is the most brief and concise manner possible.
Avoid using hashes in URLs
Hashes are usually used to send a visitor to a specific location on a particular page or for tracking parameters. But if you are using hash for showing unique content which is not available on the page without the hash – then this is a bad practice. This kind of practice will surely affect your SEO strategy.
Use hyphens and underscores as word separators
Unlike few years back, today search engines crawl hyphens and underscores quite effectively. Thus today hyphens and underscores are the most preferred word separators. Rather now you should be avoiding the use of spaces as they render as %20 in URLs, which distracts the readability of the pages.
Control the use of unwieldy punctuation marks
There are a number of punctuation marks which do not help you in any way, thus it is only sensible to either remove it or control its usage in the URLs. They not only affect the readability of the URL but also carry the potential to avoiding proper parsing and breaking certain browsers, crawlers.
The most unsafe characters includes the blank/ empty space and “< > # % { } \|^~ [ ]
Keyword stuffing, several numbers of folders, several redirections, hops and multiple URLs are other errors which need to be avoided while structuring the URL.
We are sure that the above given list will help you build URL which are SEO friendly and will thereby help you reap better benefits.
