URL structure is one of the most basic elements of SEO optimization. Even today, many SEO experts tend to overlook it although it can help improvise SEO.
A URL (Uniform Resource Locator), more commonly known as a “website address”, specifies the location of a resource (such as a web page) on the internet. The URL also specifies how to retrieve that resource, also known as the “protocol”, such as HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, etc
Note: As per the Backlinko reports that URLs are the most significant ranking factor in SEO.
URL Structure Optimization Ranking Factors
- The URL length is listed as #46 in Google’s top 200 ranking factors
- URL path is listed as #47
- The keyword in the URL is #51
- The URL string is #52
Having a great URL structure for SEO might look straightforward, but it is oftentimes overlooked. URLs are the building blocks of your website and can make or break your traffic. While it is important to mindfully create these URLs, these tips are not critical to every single page that is created. Your website will not perish if every single suggestion is not followed, but it’s more about doing these things where you can so that you are contributing to the success of your website.
Keep in mind
that these URLs are being read by humans and search engines alike, and it is not difficult to structure them in a way that will please both.
Many of your visitors will come to your website by clicking on a link, so you may wonder if it matters what’s in the actual URL of a specific page.
It may surprise you to know that when it comes to on-site SEO, what your URLs look like is important.
What is a URL?
If you’ve been surfing the Web, you have certainly know the term URL and you have used URLs to access HTML pages from the Web many times.
It’s often easiest, although not entirely accurate, to think of a URL as the name of a file on the World Wide Web because most URLs refer to a file on some machine on the network. However, remember that URLs also can point to other resources on the network, such as database queries and command output.
Examples of URL?
What is URL Structure?
A URL consists of the domain name, protocol and subfolder here is the following basic format: protocol://domain-name.top-level-domain/path. The protocol indicates how a browser should retrieve information about a resource.
What Use Are Keywords in a URL?
There are many ranking factors in SEO. Keyword in URL is minor possible ranking factor weight; Keywords in the URL can help users understand what a page is about.
Even though those keywords might not always show up in the SERPs, they will show when linked as a bare URL.
Example of a bare URL:
https:www.example.com/widgets/best-widgets
When in doubt, optimize for the user because Google always recommends making pages useful for users.
SEO URL Optimization tips in 2021?
- REMOVE EXTRA WORDS
- RELEVANT KEYWORDS
- EASILY READABLE
- UTILIZE HYPHENS AND UNDERSCORES
- SINGLE DOMAIN AND SUBDOMAIN
- CANONICALIZE WHEN POSSIBLe
- EXCLUDE DYNAMIC PARAMETERS
- MATCH URLS AND TITLES
- REMOVE UNNECESSARY PUNCTUATION
- LIMIT FOLDERS
Are Keywords in URLs Used for Ranking?
Year by year the ranking factors changed so there is no proven factor to rank your keywords. Here you can see the importance of keywords year by year.
- 2010: Approach Keywords in URL Like a User
- 2011: Keywords in Domain are Ranking Factors
- 2016: Google Says Keywords are Very Small Ranking Factor
- 2017: Keywords in URL are Overrated
- 2018: Don’t Worry About Keywords in URL
So now it is 2021 and I will recommend using keywords in URL, it is still a ranking factor as per our experience.
Conclusion:-
- SEO-friendly URLs are important.
- It’s one of the SEO factors that you can configure from the beginning and forget about it or it’s a task that you can do as part of the on-page optimization process.
- One thing to have in mind though is that if you have an already established website with lots of published pages, you should be careful with URL optimizations.
- Don’t go and change your URLs just for the sake of removing the ‘stop keywords’.
Do let me know if you need any suggestions or guidance to optimize your website pages and blog.