Editorial Staff
URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or more commonly known as “web address” describes the location of a website.
You can find it on top of your browser like this:
For your refresher, here is the URL components:
In fact, optimized URL is one of the 200 search engine ranking factors that can affect your rank.
From our previous lesson on the concept of domain and URL topic, we have explained the importance of choosing the top level domain in correlation with the URL component.
This time, we will focus more on the URL directory/file path and how to optimize it for better optimization.
The directory path contains the address to specific page or post within a website.
For some specific platform, a new post will have the default URL like below:
This thing might look simple but there is a problem of using this kind of directory path. It is bad for your SEO.
So, how to set a good URL that is SEO friendly?
1. Include Keyword Inside the URL
It is recommended to include your target keyword inside the directory path.
For example, if your post is about tips to handle puppy, your directory path should be like this:
By including your target keyword inside the directory path, it’s like telling the search engine what your specific page is about.
Besides, it also tell your reader on what is your post is about! Remember, your URL is also showing in the SERP.
By having optimized URL appeared in the SERP, it will also boost the CTR and hence boost your page ranking.
2. Readability
URL can include numbers and codes, but it is not the best practice for search engine optimization.
It is recommended to use words that people can comprehend.
The URL that is using numbers and codes are giving a spam impression to the potential readers and preventing them to click your link.
According to the research that we conducted in our sites, URLs that contain words without numbers and codes has 48% more CTR than the URLs that only contain number and codes.
Readability is the key. Your URLs are not supposed to use underscores, spaces, or any other characters to separate words. Exceptionally for hyphens character (-) since it is used by the search engine to replace underscore (_) and spaces between words.
3. Shorter URL
A lot of websites have the same URL directory path as their title pages.
Here is the example:
There is nothing wrong to do it, but it is recommended to use the short URL if you’re aiming to rank higher in search engine.
In fact, shorter URL rank better in search results, easier for the potential users to type it out, and thus improve user experience.
The best practice is similar to the first point, which is just include your target keyword.
By just using the target keyword as the directory path, it definitely shorten your URL rather than using your post title as the directory path.
In other word, always keep it short and simple!
4. Do Not Use Uppercase in URLs
In some of the case, there are some webmasters that experienced having both upper and lower case URLs and they came up as duplicate content.
Here is the example:
yourwebsite.com/searchengine.com and yourwebsite.com/SearchEngine.com.
Both 2 URLs above looks similar but the search engine can treat it as 2 pages with duplicate content.
You definitely don’t want to do this since duplicate content can result in loss of page rank.
Therefore, just avoid using uppercase in setting up a new URL. Just be consistent in using lowercase for all the pages.
5. Limit The Folders in URL Structure
If you have too many subcategories under categories, avoid using it in URL structure.
Here is the example:
Shorter and simpler folder means shorten URL. Remember, the shorter the URL, the better it rank in search engine.
Use no more than 1 folder (if it’s required) in your URL structure.
Bottom Line
Using a simpler and shorten URL is the best practice for search engine optimization. However, that doesn’t mean that putting one word in the directory path will work better in SEO as it doesn’t convey the message what is your page about.
Remember to keep it simple and concise, but in the same time, it should contains your target keyword and describes what is your page about.
Be aware on Google’s change of algorithm. Always keep up to date for the changes in the world of SEO. You can always check our page the latest Google’s algorithm here since we always update it whenever there is a new update!
