6 SEO Best Practices for Structuring Website URLs

1
6 SEO Best Practices for Structuring Website
URLs
Done optimizing the website content and images?
Have you checked the website speed? Updated the
XML sitemap? Now, you must be thinking your
recipe for SEO success is complete, but
structuring the URLs can be that perfect cherry
on the cake, giving you an extra edge over your
competitors.

• Sequoia IT Services

www.sequoiaitservices.com
2
Choose a Reliable Domain 

• Your selected domain may not affect the SEO
  directly, but that will determine how the users
  can reverberate with your website. Because user
  experience is an key SEO factor, you cant ignore
  the importance of choosing the best top-level
  domain. Being the most famous domain, using a
  .com can raise the authority and credibility of
  your website before the online audience.
• Yes, you may use other domains like pro and
  biz, because there is no upfront technical
  advantage in using .com. But what you must
  understand is the fact that it the psychological
  impact of using .com we are talking about,
  which in turn effect the SEO experience. Given
  their popularity, you will find it challenging to
  buy a domain of your choice, but you may consult
  with a top SEO agency and find a way around this
  issue.

www.sequoiaitservices.com
3
Maintain the Length

•  An examination done by Backlinko has proven that
  shorter URLs rank better on the search engines
  than their longer counterparts. Shocked? You can
  see every URL page by page. Preferably, you would
  want to stick within the bandwidth of 50-60
  characters. And anything that goes beyond 80
  characters can prove to be catastrophic for your
  SEO.
• To obey by the said limit, you must focus on an
  economizing of words. Even if the CMS adds
  unneeded words automatically, you should check
  manually and edit the URLs accordingly. As you
  can see, using superficial words will not only
  confuse your readers, but this practice certainly
  goes against your SEO efforts. So, be mindful of
  this point.

www.sequoiaitservices.com
4
Use Hyphens

• Many of you might miss the details like whether
  to use hyphens or underscores in the URLs, so
  here is what every top SEO agency has to say
  about it. As it is comparatively easier for both
  the search engines and users to identify the
  hyphens, we echo Googles suggestions of using
  these characters and not underscores in your
  URLs.
• Here, we would like to remind you that in no way
  you should fill the URLs with invalid characters.
  Google can decipher these characters, but keeping
  things simple will help the search engine index
  and rank your website faster. So, take the easy
  roads because they are going to take you to the
  guaranteed results. When Google prefers it
  simple, keep it simple!

www.sequoiaitservices.com
5
Improve Readability

• Dont extend the URL by adding extra words that
  you can absolutely do well without. Let us take
  the stop words as an example. Generally used
  terms like and, or, the, it can simply be
  exclude from the URL because they are not even
  indexed by Google. While you review a URL for
  removing the stop words, make sure you shoot for
  around five main words at the most.
• Also, to keep a URL short and crisp, avoid adding
  too many forward slashes or folders. If you are
  using more than two folders, it can get a ace
  hard for your customers to understand the URL
  structure. So, URL readability is all about
  squeeze the ethos of a page content within five
  words and a certain character length. Eventually,
  whether you write the top-level domain, path, or
  protocol, the lowercase is always recommended to
  create URLs for allowing quicker indexing by
  Google.

www.sequoiaitservices.com
6
Add Relevant Keywords

• Here comes the most interesting point the use
  of keywords in a URL. Now, adding keywords does
  not guarantee the top spot on the Googles search
  engine for you, but it can give your website
  ranking a subtle boost. However, when your URL is
  being used as an anchor text, adding keywords
  will help the users identify and click your
  content. So, when you engage digital marketing
  services, the experts can sort out a list of
  keywords and add only the relevant ones in the
  URL.
• Having said so, we do not ask you to stuff all
  the URLs with keywords. A single URL should not
  contain more than one or two search terms. Adding
  more will only disrupt the readability of the URL
  without you gaining any favor from Google. Also,
  make certain you do not repeat keywords because
  that does not create a good impression on the
  audience. Keywords being an integral part of the
  URL structure and overall SEO, we think you
  should engage SEO services to get help in this
  area.

www.sequoiaitservices.com
7
Go for HTTPS

• Cant choose whether to keep HTTP or go for
  HTTPS? Well, there is no luxury to choose because
  it has to be HTTPS at all costs. There is no
  contradict that specification theft is becoming a
  pressing concern today, and thus it is only
  natural that people want to use a secure
  connection. With Google flagging the non-secure
  websites, setting the HTTPS protocol is a must to
  improve your website ranking and spreading a
  sense of security among the visitors.
• For those of you who dont know what HTTPS is all
  about, it stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol
  Secure, facilitating the flow of encrypted
  information on the internet. In this regard,
  obtaining an SSL certificate is imperative to use
  the HTTPS protocol on the website and secure the
  network connection across systems.

www.sequoiaitservices.com
8
Closing Thoughts 

• The URL structure is the building block of your
  SEO strategy and ignoring its parameters can
  certainly hold back the SEO performance of your
  website. Once you get the structure right, you
  can reap benefits in the long run. You sure want
  to ace SEO like a boss, dont you? These tips
  might read like a lot of work, but why not try
  them and see how they can guide you to SEO
  success? Implement the shared suggestions and let
  us know how these have worked for you. Good luck!

www.sequoiaitservices.com