URL Structure Best Practices: Why You Should Use SEO-Friendly URLs

Have you been wondering about URL structure best practices?

When you write a blog post, the last thing you think of is your URL. You’re too busy focussing on SEO keywords, images, and creating awesome content.

But URL structures should be on your SEO blog checklist.

Blog URL structures are an important component of SEO. URL components, like categories and page names, should be designed with the user’s experience in mind.

But you also need to make them SEO-friendly.

URL best practices can help drive traffic to your site by making it easier for search engines to find your content.

Read on to find out the best way to structure your URLs so you appear higher in Google searches!

What is a URL?

A URL is the address of a web page.

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator.

The URL usually includes keywords and phrases that describe what content can be found on the page. This makes it easier for users to find information which they are searching for online.

When you write a blog post, you should have your URL in mind from the start.

A good URL will include words that match your content and help people find what they’re looking for online.

What is a URL Structure?

The first part of your URL structure is your domain name.

This would be:

• https://www.blogname.com

After your blog name is your permalink or “slug”. This is the specific address of the page a user wants to go to.

For example:

• https://www.blogname.com/my-first-blog-post
• https://www.blogname.com/how-to-write-a-blog-post

You’ll notice that there are hyphens in the permalinks. This is because a URL can’t have a space. So if your blog title or keywords need a space between them, your blog will automatically convert that space into a hyphen.

URL Structures Can Vary From Site to Site

URL structures are unique to every site. Every owner has a reason for setting up their URL in the way they have.

Some web owners may prefer to have the category of each post or item for sale displayed before the permalink (i.e. https://www.blogname.com/digital-products/digital-planner). Others may prefer to skip the category for the sake of a shorter URL.

Depending on your needs, you can determine what URL structure works best for you and for your readers.

Before you decide, consider whether you are planning on having multiple items with the same name. In that case, you may need categories to differentiate them.

Also consider whether users will be typing in this individual URL and permalink for the site. Users hate typing long, complicated URLs. So you’d want to keep it short.

Why You Need SEO-Friendly URLs

URLs are one of the things that Google reads on of your site to understand what your content is about.

If you’ve spent a ton of time optimizing your alt descriptions, meta description, title tags, and content, you don’t want to waste the opportunity to get search engine traffic from Google by having a URL that doesn’t follow best practices.

URL structure is important for SEO, and you should use SEO-friendly URL components in order to get the best results possible.

Google specifically looks at your URL’s:

• Length (how many characters it is)
• Path (HTTP vs. HTTPS)
• Keyword Inclusion (does it have your target keyword in it?)

Beyond Google reading your URL, your audience also reads it.

Here’s an example Google search result:

1/3 of what is visible is the blog post’s URL. If a user can see that it tells them exactly what the page is about, they’re more likely to click on it.

Having a clear URL that relates to your post makes your site more searchable and makes it easier for users to find exactly what they’re looking for.

Think about it. If you were searching for the best laptops for bloggers 2021, which of these URLs are you more likely to click on:

• https://www.domainname.com/509685902372hgd4455
• https://www.domainname.com/best-laptops-for-bloggers

I’d much prefer the URL that has been targetted to the keyword. It shows me that they have made specific efforts to ensure that I, as a reader, know what they’re talking about. This tells me that they probably did the same within the post, so I’m likely to find a helpful answer.

Having and SEO-friendly URL structure is essential to rank well on Google and to gain your readers’ trust.

12 URL Structure Best Practices

1. Include Your SEO Keyword in the URL

One of the metrics that Google searches for to rank your blog post for SEO is the permalink.

Your RankMath plug-in will even tell you if your URL is not optimized for your keyword:

You should adjust your URL to hold 1 or 2 keywords that relate to your post. Typically, these would be the most challenging or most highly searched keywords you are targetting.

You can see that Keysearch notes whether or not a URL is optimized for a keyword. It will be much harder to beat a post with an optimized URL.

2. Avoid Special Characters

Using special characters (such as symbols, punctuation, or underscores) can break a URL.

If it does work, it’ll be very confusing for a reader to search or to read.

It is best to avoid using any of these special characters in your URL. Stick to numbers, letters, and meaningful words. Only use hyphens to break words.

For example, for this blog post, the URL is “https://sheknowsseo.co/seo-friendly-url-structure-best-practices”.

I did not use the colon in the title, as it would likely break the entire URL and no one would see this awesome post!

3. Remove Unnecessary Words

You want your URL to be as short as possible. So using additional words such as “and”, “the”, “a”, “but”, “to”, etc. will ruin the flow and make your URL too long.

Keep it short and remove filler words.

4. Don’t Include Dates

Including a date in your URL structure not only makes the URL longer, but it also ruins the SEO.

SEO-friendly URLs should be evergreen. That means that you can reuse them year-to-year.

For example, if I had a post on the best laptops for bloggers 2021, I wouldn’t include “2021” in the URL. This means that I can update the post in 2022, 2023, etc. to keep the content fresh and continue to rank.

While you can change the content without changing the URL, it will lower your authority in Google’s eyes, as the search engine is reading your post as being 2021-specific.

5. Keep it in Lowercase

URLs are case-sensitive for the permalink.

That means the domain section isn’t, but any individual post will need to be typed into the URL in the right case.

Almost everyone uses lowercase in their URL permalinks. That means that your readers are used to searching in lowercase, so they’re likely to wind up on a 404 page if they try to enter your URL that is in uppercase.

WordPress automatically defaults to lowercase for URLs, so stick with this when you’re building your blog post URL structure.

6. Limit Your Use of Folders and Categories

We want a short and sweet URL. Having a whole slew of categories and folders before your permalink makes for a looooong link.

For example, which link would you prefer to click on?

1. https://domainname.com/travel/italy/rome/what-to-do-in-rome
2. https://domainname.com/what-to-do-in-rome

I’d prefer the second one, because it’s direct and to the point.

7. Use HTTPS

HTTP or HTTPS are known as the “protocol” for your URL.

HTTPS is a more secure protocol. It is essentially an HTTP with an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) added on.

An SSL encrypts your website to prevent hackers, making it more reliable for users who can expect not to be hacked themselves.

If your site is only HTTP, you should redirect to HTTPS – most domain hosts will let you do it automatically. It will put the little lock beside your URL to assure visitors that this is a safe site.

See mine?

8. Don’t Use Auto-Generated URLs

When you first start writing a new blog post on WordPress, you’ll find that it auto generates a URL for you, including the permalink.

This is usually a random assortment of numbers after the letter p.

You’ll want to change this URL to accommodate the URL structure best practices before you publish. Otherwise, you risk Google not knowing what your post is about.

9. Keep it Short

Your URL should be as short as possible!

Google searches don’t show much of your URL, so you want it to fit in the search result as best you can. You also want it to be easy for a reader to type in, or for other bloggers to reference.

You can even cut out part of the title, like I did for this URL, to keep is as short as possible.

Short titles actually rank better on Google. Stick with 50-60 characters, according to Cognitive SEO’s study.

When I see a blog with a URL that is so long it goes beyond my URL bar, I veer away immediately. That tells me that the author doesn’t know what they’re doing, so I don’t trust their other information.

It’s also a massive pet peeve of mine as an SEO strategist.

10. Use Hyphens, Not Spaces

Hyphens are the best practice to construct SEO-friendly URLs that are searchable. Use them to replace spaces.

Spaces can’t be read in a URL. They actually break the entire function.

Using underscores can confuse Google and make it difficult for it to read your site.

Stick with hyphens for your blog’s best interest.

11. Be Consistent

Consistency is key in all blogging practices!

If you use categories for one section of your blog, you should use them everywhere. If you write out your numbers in your URLs, then you should always do this.

Make sure that you keep your blog URLs consistently optimized for SEO.

12. Redirect Old URLs

Many bloggers I’ve worked with come to me after years of writing and have tons of scattered or auto-generated URLs that hit all of the above 11 URL mistakes from their beginner blogging years..

They worry that they can never change them since the posts are already published.

But that’s not true!

You can always change your URL, as long as you redirect the old URL to the new one.

You will also need to be prepared for a dip in traffic while Google reassesses your new permalink structure.

I recommend doing this at least 6 months before the content is necessary (i.e. if it’s seasonal content).

For example, if you update a gift guide post, you’ll want to change the URL in July so it has time to rank by Christmas.

Wrap Up of URL Structure Best Practices

URL structure best practices are important for SEO. URL structures affect search engine rankings, so it is wise to follow these SEO-friendly URL guidelines when constructing your URLs for blog posts.

If you don’t start optimizing your URLs, Google likely won’t rank your post highly. That means you’re losing traffic on this amazing post you wrote.

Don’t waste time putting hours of effort into a blog post only to have it fall off Google’s radar because of your URL. Take the time to implement these URL best practices to create an epic post that will gain you traffic.

Plan a day to analyze your URLs and see if they meet these URL best practices. If they don’t, make them SEO-friendly!

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