Search engine optimization is a method which includes several search engine guidelines and algorithms. Today we are going to talk about a question which is about impact of URL structure in SEO.
In order to understand the impact of URL structure in SEO, first we need to understand what are URLs and its role in search engine optimization.
What is URL
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. It is the address of unique resource on the internet and it is the key mechanism for browsers to locate or retrieve published information in the form of HTML, CSS, Images, Documents and so on.
A URL is a combination of protocol, root domain, subdomain, TLD, slug and article permalink. All these parameters form a complete URL.
Any URL contains the information and resources for browsers to read and represent the users. Every URLs contains different parts such as scheme, domain name, port, path to the file, parameters and anchors.
Let’s take an example here.
in above example, you can see URL structure.
Role of URL structure in better SEO results
URL is one of the most important ranking factors. In 2016, Google’s John Mueller confirmed keywords in a URL are a ranking factor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FkSZIW6d48
If you optimize the page URLs correctly, you will get better results in SERP. Strategic use of keywords, clean structure and length of URL should be optimized for better outcome.
For example, I have written about blog about Affordable SEO Services and to make it easy read and understand for both users and crawlers I used the keyword /affordable-seo-services/ in it. This is the ideal URL for a topic and we should always use the keywords about the content we are representing inside URL.
Things to avoid while creating page URLs
- Do not create lengthy URLs. Browsers can handle URLs up to 2048 characters long, but search engines may not. Long URLs look spammy and does not generate trust because long URLs are not completely visible and readable.
- Use of Non alphanumeric characters in URLs are not recommended for a good URL
- Keep it simple and avoid using stop words such as “the”, “and”, “or”, and “of”.
- Using hyphens are good to separate the words but underscores are not a good practice. Always use hyphens to separate the words.
- It is recommended to Avoid using long, unreadable ID numbers in the URL. Keep the URL clean, simple and readable.
- URLs are case sensitive after the domain name so avoid using capitalization in URLs.
- Dynamic parameters are good for ad campaign URLs but you should avoid using dynamic parameters in permanent URLs.
How search engines read URLs?
Every search engine has its own algorithm to read URLs such as google follow more than 200+ ranking factors before displaying URL in SERP. Search engine bots follow the URLs based on relevancy, signals, keyword, user query, purpose and ease of access. Let’s take an example here.
If you search for the word “Titanic”, you will see different set of URLs such as movie in sub folder, academic in URL because of education and information purpose, videos of the ship, wiki articles and research papers. All of them are different from each other but they are matching with search query because the intent in search is not clear and search engines are not sure what user is actually looking to find. If we specify the search and write a broad term i.e. titanic ship, search engine will remove all the movie and videos and show us research and informative articles about the ship.
Here search engines are following the URL structure and matching it with search queries.
You can follow google URL structure guidelines to know everything about URL structure guidelines.
FAQs-Impact of URL Structure in SEO
SEO friendly URLs are easy to understand, short, descriptive enough, containing relevant keywords and user-friendly URLs. These URLs are good for both users and search engine crawlers. In order to get better ranking in SERP, it is recommended to optimize the page URLs.
Static URLs are those which remains same for all the users under any circumstances. These URLs never change. For example policy pages, contact page, about us page remains same for all users. However, dynamic URLs are those URLs which changes as per the website functionality such as filters, click parameters, database commands and identifiers.
Yes, all URLs are case sensitive. To form a good URL, it is recommended not to use capitalization in URLs.
Dynamic parameters are placeholders which changes according to the purpose. It is a common practice in ad campaigns to use dynamic parameters to represent a URL with specific placeholder which represents different value and changes as soon as user clicks on the ad. Search Ads 360 recognizes all dynamic parameters that are provided by the supported search engines.
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