URL is the address of your site. URLs are often the first thing Google and visitors see. Creating friendly (readable) URLs is an easy way to improve SEO services for your website. If you pay attention to this point, you can improve the visibility of the site in the search engine.
In addition, friendly addresses are better perceived by site visitors who are looking for relevant content. Too long links, replete with prepositions, parameters, and unnecessary categories, look worse than short addresses that fully convey the essence of the content of the resource. Therefore, creating friendly URLs is of strategic importance.
In this review we:
- Here are some general guidelines for creating friendly URLs;
- Tell you how to improve the URL for sites
- Will give simple and effective tips for optimizing the URL structure.
What are Friendly URLs?
Friendly URLs are links that are well received not only by visitors but also by search engines. Well-composed URLs play a paramount role in quality SEO work. When creating URLs, use the following guidelines:
- easy readability and maximum compliance with the theme of the page/site;
- lack of difficulty to remember long names;
- a consistent approach in creating a URL structure.
Apply the KISS (Keep It Short and Simple) principle. Previously, this principle was used in the US Navy, and today it is one of the “whales” in the design of any site.
Google is of the opinion that the URL structure of a site should be as simple as possible. Therefore, the application of the KISS principle is not primitivism, but a wise decision. Make URLs logical and easy to read.
When potential visitors look at the address, they should be in no doubt about what kind of content they will be offered. If your address is simple and as readable as possible, visitors with great interest will want to click on the link presented in Google search results.
In addition, it is desirable to include 1-2 important key queries in the URL. This contributes to better rankings. However, don’t overdo it. If you fill the URL with only keywords, it worsens readability and indicates poor optimization. Therefore, you need to avoid it. There is no benefit to increasing the number of search phrases in a URL, and sometimes it is even harmful.
How to optimize the URL structure: basic recommendations.
Creating an attractive site filled with high-quality thematic content is only half the battle. Search engines care not only about how beautiful your resource looks. For them, the correspondence of its structure to the needs of the search engine is of great importance.
Of course, appearance is also important, because visitors like to be on a site with a beautiful design than to visit an unattractive resource. It also affects search engine rankings. However, the issue of creating friendly addresses is no less important. To do this, you need to think about optimizing the site URL so that they are more easily “understood” by Google and visitors.
Creating friendly URLs in WordPress.
Would you like Google to “understand” your content and associate it with specific search phrases? To do this, you must make sure that the URLs contain keywords that are relevant to the topic of the site.
Conclusions.
So, now you know how important it is that your URLs reflect the subject matter of your content and be as logical as possible. Try to keep URLs short as long URLs are harder to read. Also, remember the importance of fully matching the address to the content type. Also, add keywords to the URL to make it easier for search engines to find your resource.
Use powerful techniques such as canonical URLs and XML sitemaps to optimize your URLs. Try to minimize the use of parameters in links as much as possible. Plan your URL structure for the future to save yourself the hard work later on. Remove unnecessary words and prepositions from addresses, as they do not carry a semantic load and lead to worse rankings in search engines.
Please also refer to our recommendations for setting URLs for Joomla and WordPress platforms, as the steps are different in each case. By following these tips for creating friendly URLs, you can significantly improve the perception of your site by visitors and search engines, and this will help increase website traffic and, ultimately, conversions.
