Why are SEO friendly URLs important?

What is an SEO friendly URL?

It is the mechanism used by browsers to retrieve any published resource on the web. URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. A URL is nothing more than the address of a given unique resource on the Web. In theory, each valid URL points to a unique resource.

​​An SEO friendly URL is a web address that is readable to both a human user of the website and a search engine spider. Regarding SEO, friendly URLs can also include page specific keywords to help improve the relevance of those pages.

Here is an example of a friendly URL: https://yourplanb.com/team/jameyb/

Here is an example of a NON friendly URL: https://www.example.com/Folder/X1356774/124

Why is it important?

  • Can help visitors remember the Web address
  • Can help describe the page to search engines. Friendly URLs that are short and easy to remember are considered “user-friendly URLs.” These URLs help visitors remember web addresses, which means they can revisit pages by simply typing in the URL address bar.
  • Increase the likelihood of the link being clicked and this can also increase your PageRank.

What are some tips for SEO friendly URLs?

  • They should contain keywords relevant to the page’s topic, and contain no spaces, underscores or other characters.
  • SEO friendly URLs should have 1-2 target keywords and 1-2 folders. Anything more can become confusing or hard to read.
  • URLs are a ranking factor in Google. This means optimized URL structures promote Google PageRank (PR). Avoid stuffing URLs with every keyword and only include what’s useful. 
  • Keep a simple URL structure
  • Avoid using dates (they make the URL longer and harder to update the content)

SEO ranking is on everyone’s mind as they jockey for the first page of search results.  By keeping your web structure and URLs in mind, you can float to the top of the results.

 

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