Effects of the URL structure on SEO?

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Date: November 6, 2019

One of the most ignored questions in SEO is about the effect of URL on the search engine optimization. Today we will have a look at this question and will figure out the impact of a URL on the rank of a webpage.

We heavily invest the time, money, and efforts to create a website that offers original and engaging content and comprises of targeted, relevant SEO keywords. Every design component of the site is carefully examined for its effectiveness, retaining, and acquiring an audience. In fact, the color or theme of the website we select also plays a vital role in its success. Then what impact does URL structure create for the enhancement of a website in search results?

Does Google actually care regarding URLs?

Uniform Resource Locator or URL informs you about a particular address of articles or websites on the internet.

The URL is stored on the domain name system database which attaches it to a particular IP address. When you insert a URL into the search or navigation bar of any browser, it sends a request to the server of the domain name system for the IP address of the particular URL.

Best Practices To Structure URL For SEO

The URL of your website inevitably affects its ranking. The following are the tailored methods through which you can generate a good quality URL for your site.

Keep the URL sweet and short

Long URLs can harm social sharing. As website owners can use different tools like URL Shortener, which minimizes down the long link with several characters to smaller ones that will not take much space in the social media platforms, perhaps in tweets. Moreover, people also hesitate while clicking and sharing the long URLs that may seem to appear spam to them.

How do you convert your old URL or make it useful as well as short? Are the folders of your URL named and organized correctly? Did you select a specific and precise title with the article on the page? Can the visitors get what they will see on the page by just witnessing the URL? If the answer to the question is yes, then you have made an absolute URL.

According to the stats, the URL which comprises 35-45 characters gets a dominant rank in the search result pages. Therefore, aim for around 35-45 characters for your URL. So, if your URL includes a couple of characters, then there is no need to make it even smaller. Try not to overuse different abbreviations, as many people will not understand the right meaning.

Do not use pointless duplications

If two of the URLs of your website provide similar articles, then it will affect the audience and might even divide your signal. You can resolve this issue with the help of 301 redirects or with rel=canonical, especially if the second page is also of use. This concentrates all of the search engine users on the first page of the site and assists in boosting the potential visitors.

Similarly, avoid inserting repetitive keywords in your URL. As it will neither enhance the search engine ranking of your page but in rare cases? It also will discourage your visitors to click that link.

Online URL Encoder/decoder

Excess words in a URL? A big NO!

Different discontinuing words such as etc., the, a, but, or, others are of no use in a URL. They not directly hurt your site but make your URL appear messy in some situations. You must judge your URL yourself.

Stay away from folder mania

Having many folders in your URL can do not damage your search engine optimization but it makes your URL weird. As no one wants their URL to look like, for example:

Http:// example.com/date/general/2019/September/home/page/

It is advisable that less wordy URLs are better along with the readability. By adding folders in your URL, you will only increase the length of your URL which will make the site looks like a faux link. Streamline your articles with good names and sensible folders in order to receive the best outcomes.

Make use of keywords

According to the research, people make decisions regarding sites they go to base on the relevancy of the keywords in their URLs. By adding pertinent keywords in your URL will improve the meaning and relevancy, which ultimately will persuade the users to select your site.

When the users see your link through email, a website, or social media, they will get to know what your site will provide information about via URL keywords. As a result, that can develop trust and will increase engagement.

The Bottom Line

Google surely cares about the construction of the URL of any website. Your visitors even care more than google. Hence, you must follow the mentioned tips to make both Google and visitors satisfied with your website.