Well-structured page URLs are one of the fundamental On-Page SEO basics. URLs are important when it comes to indexation, marketing, click through, and when other sites link to your website. Following some best practices when creating your URL structure can potentially increase search engine ranking and click-through rate.
What is a URL?
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator and is the URL is a text string in the address bar of your browser. Enter this text string is entered into the browser address bar and you are taken to the webpage you wanted to see.
A well-structured URL is comprised of four basic parts: protocol, domain name, top-level domain, and path.
The protocol is the method used for communication. This is usually either HTTPS or HTTP.
The domain name is the brand name recognizable part of the website URL, such as Google, eBay, or SEMRush.
The Top-level domain (TLD) is the portion of the URL that follows the “dot”. This is usually a .com (for commercial websites), .gov (for government websites), etc. Having authoritative TLDs such as .gov or .edu in your backlink profile will positively impact SEO.
The path is the text following the TLD that indicates a specific location (usually a subfolder, category or landing page) on the website where the page is located.
Making Your URLs Work or Search: On-Page SEO Basics
Your page URL appears in search engine results below the title and above the description. This is one of the reasons to make sure you keep your page URLs clean, simple and descriptive. A simple URL structure is easy to read and will encourage more clicks.
On-Page SEO Basics #1: Use Keywords in URL
Another principle in On-Page SEO basics state that including keywords in your URL structure for SEO is a solid idea for a few reasons. It sends a clear signal to search engines what the page is about and adds to the relevance of the intended search. Searchers will know what the page is about and be more inclined to click through to the page from the search engine result page.
On-Page SEO Basics #2: Be Descriptive
Use real words related to the intended search topic. For example, use ‘/black-umbrella’ instead of ‘/item-1234’. When possible, try to match the URL to the page title (link to title article) as much as possible.
On-Page SEO Basics #3: Plan Categories based on Search
Here’s another one of On-Page SEO Basics, URLs should be named with your keywords in mind. This will make them more appealing to searchers, as well as clickable. This means you should plan your categories around your important keywords. Some things to think about would be:
- How do my categories relate to popular searches?
- What phrases are people using to search for my competitors’ products or services?
- Are these searchable categories relevant to your business/blog?
On-Page SEO Basics #4: Remove Stop Words
Stop words are extremely common words that most search engines skip over in order to speed up indexing and save space in their databases. These words do not immediately impact On-Page SEO, but over-using them can. Words such as ‘of ‘, ‘or’, ‘the’ are commonly filtered out by search engines and should be avoided when possible.
On-Page SEO Basics #5: Keep it Simple
Limit the URLs to 1-2 keywords and 1-2 folders or directories deep. Try to keep your URL length around 50-60 characters and less 100. Remember, if your URL is easy to read out loud you are on the right track.
On-Page SEO Basics for URLs:
- Include your keyword
- Be descriptive and meaningful
- Use relevant categories/subfolders
- Remove stop words if possible
- Be easy to read and only contain around 3 to 5 words if possible
Helpful Online SEO Tools for Checking your URLs
So, to check if the URLs on your website are working or not, use the following online tools.
SEMrush SEO Ideas – This SEMrush Project tool checks if you have a keyword in your title and meta tag and offers suggestions if you don’t. Just enter a target keyword and this tool provides you with a detailed list of actionable, tailor-made optimization tips for each page of your website.
SEOmofo – This SERP view generator lets you enter your URL, title and description to manage the number of symbols and preview your article’s appearance on SERP. This can be helpful as you test out your ideas for category pages.
For more similar tips, check out this on-page SEO checklist.
This content was condensed from an article written by Luke Harsel that originally appeared here.
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