5 Major Tips for SEO Friendly URLs
URLs, definitely, are an integral part of the overall impression your users and Google get from your website. You would want to make it a great one, right? You better!
Thus, planning ahead and ensuring maximum efforts in creating those SEO friendly URLs should be a must for you. To avoid endless redirect loops!
So, hop on, as we are going to tell you the 5 major tips for creating SEO friendly URLs. While these tips are not the absolute-strict-rules for ranking high in search engines, they are more of rules to follow to get the most out of URLs and better the chances of future SEO success. Alright, alright! Let’s cut to the chase.
Include Your Targeted Keywords
Including your targeted keywords in your URLs is always the right decision.
Keywords in URLs tend to introduce the topic of your page to your readers with a single look at your link.
For instance, when your topic is about SEO tips, having a URL like this one is simply an eye-catcher, isn’t it? It naturally signals the relevant topic of the page, having the potential to attract more and more interested readers.
Imagine how many times your link can be shared on social media, in emails, chat boxes, viewers hovering at it to understand how it can feed their interests. See? You would want them to get a picture of what they are going to read by clicking on that link, in order to maximize their satisfaction level, right?
Yet, most importantly, search engines look for keywords in your URLs. In other words, your SEO will win from it!
Make It Readable for Humans
Besides making your URLs readable for search engines, don’t forget to also make them readable for humans. In the end, they are the ones who are going to click on it. If you don’t provide them with comprehensible URLs, they are less likely to trust your link for let alone clicking on it.
Let’s compare these two URLs:
The first one looks neat, right? We bet you most definitely would click on it if looking for the relevant topic.
On the other hand, the second one looks really spammy. Don’t you think? Lots of numbers, codes or whatever it is, giving no idea on what the page is about. Now, would you click on that? We doubt it!
Related: Top 3 Local SEO Tips For Small Businesses (2018)
Avoid Underscores
Indeed, you need to use punctuation in your URLs, right? Why? Well, they help with comprehensibility. But, what type of punctuation to use? That’s the question!
Just avoid using underscores! Underscores (_) should not be your choice of word separators in URLs.
Instead, use hyphens (-). Hyphens both look good and are preferred by Google. They have even stated that a URL like http://www.example.com/green-dress.html is much more useful to them than http://www.example.com/greendress.html.
They have said it; you better make notes!
Watch for Case Sensitivity
Paying attention to case sensitivity for creating that SEO friendly URLs is essential.
Not much essential when you are hosting with Microsoft/IIS, though. No problem here!
Yet, if you are using the Linux/UNIX servers, you may face some issues. What kind of issues? Well, they can interpret separate cases.
That being said, /page1.html is a different piece of content from /PAGE1.html, while hosting with Linux/UNIX.
So, you better watch for case sensitivity, to provide your users the right experience no matter on what servers. Simply said, use lower case letters in your URLs! Tadaam!
Make it Short
According to Backlinko.com, short URLs tend to rank higher than long ones. Why?
First, that is because Google understands short URLs easier, giving you less credit after the 5th word in the URLs.
Second, a long URL usually directs to a page that’s several clicks from the homepage. And, that signals less authority flowing to that page, ultimately resulting in lower rankings.
You see the point now? Good!
Moreover, consider that shorter URLs are more sharing-friendly. They are easier to copy and paste, embed or share on social media. So, it is more about user experience, which at the end of the day, matters significantly.
Now, do yourself a favor and whenever possible make your URLs short and sweet! 50-60 characters is the ideal max. length!
You can even include only your targeted keyword in it – just like Backlinko.com did on their article entitled “21 Actionable SEO Techniques You Can Use Right Now.”
Remember – short and sweet!
