06. URL Structure and Best Practices
As a marketer, you may be tasked with creating new content or pages for your website.
Once you create a new page you will need to:
- Assign a unique address (URL) to this new page
- Determine where it will live on your site
We will explore how to determine where your page should live in the next section on site structure.
But first, let’s focus on best practices to keep in mind when you create a new web page and assign a unique address to it.
URL Structure
Every web page has a unique address online. That address is the URL of the page.
URL is short for “Uniform Resource Locator” and indicates an address that identifies a particular file on the web.
URLs are important for the search engine because they tell search engines where the site is located and something about the pages that make up the website.
URL Best Practices
Your URLs have an SEO impact. Here are a few best practices to keep in mind when constructing URLs or when talking with your website developer about constructing URLs.
1. Readable by humans
You will want your URL to be written so it can be easily read and understood by someone.
The idea here is that by making your URL readable to humans, a user can more easily choose your URL from a list of many URL’s, and have a good idea of what your page is about. Take a look at the example below of different ways to write a URL:
In this case: http://mydomain.com/first-autonomous-car-sf is the most clear and concise URL and you know exactly what you are going to get when you click that link.
Here is another example from the Google Search engine optimization starter guide:
This URL is for a sample site that sells baseball cards. The URL is confusing and the numbers are long and meaningless to a user.
Compare that to this example:
This URL is a lot more descriptive, and when a user sees it without the benefit of the context of the actual page, they still understand what this URL is about.
2. Make URLs descriptive and concise
It is a good practice to make your URLs descriptive, but not too long. Descriptive and concise URLs make it easier for search engines to navigate your content.
If your URL is already under 50 and 60 characters, that should be ok, but if your URL is nearing 100+ characters, that may be an opportunity to shorten your URL for simplicity.
It’s not that long URLs are so much a problem for the search engine, it’s more that short and descriptive URLs are just so much more user friendly - they make more sense to the user, and it’s easier for users to share those URLs.
OK Example:
Better Example:
http://www.mydomain.com/blog/article/autonomous-car-SF
3. Use Keywords
Another great practice is to use keywords in your URLS. Keywords in the URL indicate to users they are getting what they expect when they click on a link.
Also, Keywords in the URL will appear on the search engine results page. Research has shown that when searchers determine which link to click, the URL is one of the most important elements considered.
4. Use a directory structure
Finally, use a directory structure for your URL.
To do this, structure your website as domain, folder or path, and then page. That way, the user can tell from the URL where in the site they are situated.
Example:
http://www.udacity.com/nanodegree/plus
✔ Domain
✔ Folder/Paths
✔ Page
Let’s take a look at our partner company, Ezequiel Farca, the design and architecture firm and see how they have structured their URLS.
The URL for the (English language) homepage is: http://www.ezequielfarca.com/en. The URL has the protocol “http://” and the Domain “ezequielfarca”
If you navigate deeper into other pages on their website, you will see longer URLs. For
When you look at the URL of this page, you see the folder path, interior-design.
ezequielfarca.com/interior-design/
Ezequiel’s URL tells the search engine that this page or “Folder” is related to Interior Design.
When you navigate further you come across the “Yacht Design” page.
Note that the URL includes the page name and makes it very easy for the users to orient themselves.
Conclusion
Your URL matters because both users and search engines get a lot of information from it.
To recap, when choosing the URL for your page, make it readable, keep it simple and descriptive, use keywords and rely on a directory structure of your site. Next we will explore site structure in more depth.
Note:
For more helpful URL tips, check out the Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide.