A Closer look at SEO friendly URLs
When it comes to your website’s SEO practices, every component matters, a missed opportunity or a wrong choice can be the difference between your website being seen by customers and it being buried on the dreaded second page. That’s why we’re going to take a closer look at how to craft SEO friendly URLs.
What Is Your URL?
The URL is the foundation of your site hierarchy—it is not only the first thing customers will see after searching for you and the portal through which they enter your site, but it is also the cornerstone of your SEO strategy. When it comes to getting the right URL, you must get it right the first time, as corrections and revisions can be tricky down the line.
Use Keywords In Your SEO friendly URL
Every page on your website should be using targeted and deliberate keywords that are relevant to its purpose, ensuring not only a good SEO ranking but also that relevant audiences will discover it. When it comes to the page’s URL, you want to ensure that the most broadly relevant and accurate of those keywords are included. To find this out you need to discover which one of the search terms appropriate to your page will deliver the highest volume, and then use it in your page URL.
Think Long Term
Unlike other SEO components, your site URL can not be easily and frequently edited for the purpose of optimization or to reflect changes—this poses a significant challenge. Not only do you need an SEO friendly URL structure for today, you need one that will remain effective well into the future. In order to ensure this, it’s essential to layout your site architecture well in advance, thinking about your current services and your future plans, and researching impending SEO developments.
Be Concise
The guiding principle behind the URL of any page should be, quite simply, can the audience understand what the page is about based on the URL? This means there’s no need for superfluous identifiers or unnecessary prepositions. It is also imperative that you avoid keyword repetition, as this will not increase your SEO ranking and will lead to an unwieldy and unsightly URL.
Static URL Strings
This is one of the more complicated tricks for improving the SEO optimisation of your URL—and it’s essential to understand how your content management system or web platform handles URL strings. But it is one that can have a tremendous impact. With several platforms, especially in the e-commerce sector, your website will automatically generate dynamic URL strings—you can tell by the string of characters at the end along the lines of /cid=4975, etc. Whilst these are generally just as useful as static strings, they lack the keyword, and other SEO benefits those can provide.
For more information on how we can improve your organic search presence, get in touch with a member of our digital marketing team today!