Why short and clear URLs are important for SEO?

URLs, the web addresses you see in your browser, are not easy to remember. That's just a fact. They're often forgotten or not given much thought. Sometimes, we spend time coming up with a catchy title for a web page, and that title becomes the URL.

But whether you meant to or not, we're happy you found our blog post by searching for "how does URL structure affect SEO?" This shows that you're starting to think about what makes a good URL for SEO, or you're curious if the web address of your website affects how it appears in search results and if that's important for SEO. 

The truth is, the words you put in your URL can impact your SEO and how well your website shows up in search results. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Instead, you should think about how your URL can either help or hurt your search rankings.

Furthermore, if you think about it, we put a lot of effort into creating a website with interesting, original content that includes carefully chosen SEO keywords. We also carefully design every part of the website to attract and keep visitors.

What is a URL?

URL stands for "Uniform Resource Locator," and it shows you the exact address of a piece of web content. The URL is saved in the Domain Name System (DNS) database and is associated with a specific IP address. When you type a URL into a browser's navigation bar, it sends a request to the DNS server for the URL's IP address.

What impact do URLs have on SEO?

According to Google Webmaster's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, it is vital to develop descriptive categories and filenames to keep your website more structured as well as to lead to better crawling by search engines.

Having simpler and friendlier web addresses can make it easier for people to access your content. When your URL has meaningful words in it, it tells users and search engines more about what the page is about compared to a strange name.

Think about it, when you search for something online, most of the results you see have keywords related to your search in their web addresses. But it's not as easy as it seems. Here are some tips on how to make web addresses that are good for SEO.

Best Practices for URL Structure

So we know that URL structure is important for SEO, which begs the question, "How?" Let's look at all of the ways you may optimize a url  that can help your website get traction:

Maintain the length of your URL

Short and simple web addresses can be a problem when you want to share them on social media. People often use services like TinyURL or Bit.ly to make long links shorter, which is useful for Twitter, for example. However, many people are cautious about clicking on short links because they can't see where the link will take them. They worry it might be a harmful or spamy link.

Making a web address that's both short and useful involves a few things. Are your files organized and named properly? Did you pick a straightforward page title that matches what's on the page? Can someone quickly understand what the link is about? When you think about it, a lot of this just makes sense.

Avoid unnecessary duplication

If you have two web addresses that show the same stuff, it can cause problems. It means your visitors and traffic might get split, and that's not good. But there are simple ways to fix this.

You can use something called a "301 redirect" if one of the pages doesn't add much value on its own. This sends all the search engine visitors to the main page, so more people can see it.

Also, don't stuff your web addresses with the same words over and over again. It won't help you show up better in search results, and it might turn some users away.

Underscores should be replaced with hyphens

Let us begin with Google's own request that web designers use hyphens (-) rather than underscores (_) to separate terms. Using hyphens aids their site crawler analytics in parsing essential information and producing excellent findings. The less your URL resembles nonsense, the more likely it is to improve your search engine rankings.

Remove extraneous words

Stop words such as a, the, etc., and, or, but, and so on are unneeded in URLs. They don't always harm you, but they can make a URL unwieldy in some cases. Make the best decision you can. If eliminating a stop word may confuse the subject, it's better to leave it in unless it will make your link too long.

Make it easy to read

This is to be expected given Google's preference for user-friendly websites. Making your URL easy to understand for people benefits search engines as well.

So, how can you tell if a URL is readable or not? The overall concept here is that your URL doesn't have to be flawless, but it should be simple to comprehend and appealing enough to get people to click on it.

Make effective use of keywords

According to research, individuals make selections about which websites to visit depending on the relevancy of keywords in the URL. Including relevant keywords increases the likelihood that they will choose your site over others when you meet their needs the best.

They'll get a better idea of what your link provides if they come across it via social media, email, or a website. This can generate enough trust and engagement for them to click through.

On a website, the URL serves as the anchor text when there is no anchor text associated with your link. A legible, keyword-focused URL may increase traffic to your site by increasing rankings and promoting click-through

That is why, while selecting the keywords in your URL, you must also make an intelligent judgment. Choose your URL keywords with the terms "volume," "search trend," and "intent" in mind.