URLs are one of the most basic yet crucial elements of SEO. Even today, many SEO experts tend to overlook it. Good URL structure of a website can help improvise SEO by providing an excellent navigational experience. It can also be tracked in Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics for data monitoring purposes.
In this article, we will discuss the necessary information of URLs like, what is URL? How a URL looks like? What are the URL structure and the importance of it?
What is the URL?
URL is an abbreviation for “Uniform Resource Locator” and is used to identify the address of particular documents or other resources on the internet. URLs consist of multiple parts that include “a protocol and a domain name.” It tells a browser about how and from where to retrieve a resource.
Example of URL:
https://www.infidigit.com/e-commerce-seo/
This is an example of an URL that houses content related to E-commerce SEO at the domain Infidigit & the path /e-commerce-seo/. Together forming a URL: https://www.infidigit.com/e-commerce-seo/
What is the URL structure?
URL structure is the anatomy of how a particular URL looks like. Usually, it either starts with “http or https.”
S stands for the secured version of websites in “https.” It is recommended to use “https” for the various reasons that you can read here.
Then follows, www and the name of your domain, like https://www.infidigit.com and then comes the directory or the path where your content is stored that is, https://www.infidigit.com/e-commerce-seo/.
Now,
What is the importance of URL structure in SEO?
If you observe the SERP results carefully, you won’t see a URL that has improper structure. Either you see a search result with breadcrumbs or a proper URL structure.
Every search result has three main components that a user will see. They are:
- Title
- URL &
- Description.
We believe that the first impression always counts and search engines like Google takes this very seriously. Based on these components, a user is likely to click on a search result.
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Besides these, there are also other reasons for the importance of URL structure in SEO.
-
User Experience
An ideal URL structure will describe the web page, both humans and search engines. This improves click-through rates and limits the bounce rate. It shouldn’t include un-necessary parameters.
-
Rankings
In the article “200+ Ranking Factor,” Backlinko reported that URLs play an important role in ranking a particular page. Although URLs do not have the ability to rank themselves, a keyword in the URL can improve the page’s ranking, providing better visibility. Hence it is crucial to create URLs that describe the content and not just add keywords randomly.
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Links
A well-written and descriptive URL can serve as an anchor text when used in blogs, social media, forums, and more. A few websites provide completely unformatted links. These abnormally long URLs look unwieldy, incoherent, and unoptimized. Instead of being click-magnets, they repel traffic since most semantically inaccurate links don’t appear trustworthy.
For example, look at these two links:
and
The first link looks like an unending string of numbers that do not make sense. The second link is as clear as day, and users know where the link is taking them.
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Tracking in Analytics
It is crucial to know how the landing pages of a website are performing. Let’s say the site you are tracking has thousands of landing pages. Having a clean URL structure makes it easier to identify which pages are receiving what amount of traffic. You can tell which pages of the website have performed well by looking at the landing page.
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Keep it Simple & Concise.
Create URLs that are easy to understand, relevant, compelling, and accurate to the content. A short URL with keywords embedded into it is always a best practice. It should be easy for users and search engines to understand what to expect from the URLs by looking at them.
The best way to keep a URL structure clean is by making them SEO friendly. SEO friendly URL structure demands to follow a specific structure that could vary depending upon the type of a website. E.g.,
- For a blog, the structure could be:
https://www.domain.com/blog-name. If your blog has multiple categories, then it can be changed to: https://www.domain.com/category/blog-name. - For E-commerce, it could be:
https://www.domain.com/department/category/sub-category/product
where; dept = mens, womens, boy, girls, kids; category = top-wear ; sub-category = t-shirts ; product = black t-shirt
Today, the competition to rank at the top of Search Engine Results Page (SERPs) is higher than ever. Businesses heavily invest in Digital Marketing services and majorly into SEO services since the cost per lead is less than paid or other channels. Hence, while you take care of every technical aspect of a website, do not miss to consider the structure of the URL.
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1 thought on “URL Structure – Importance of URL Structure In SEO”
The good thing with URL structure is that you just have to set up things right once (for the bigger picture).
Then, just follow a simple list of best practices (which I’ll share with you soon) when creating new URLs.