Important Tips for URLs optimization

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The website search ranking depends on a variety of factors and the URL structure is one of them.

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. It is a web address of a website that contains information about its location. Simply speaking, a URL is readable text that substitutes for the website’s IP address.

Typically, URLs look like this:

Protocol://domain_name.domain_upper_level/path

https://site.com/category/page

The role of URLs in SEO

The location of the page should be simple and understandable for users and search engines. URLs that contain target keywords play an important role in a website’s indexation.

Let’s look at the important factors for optimization of the website structure for organic traffic.

URL optimization techniques

1. Short URLs

According to Backlinko research, short URLs are supposed to work better than long URLs. When URLs are longer, Google’s ranking goes down. URLs should be in the range of 50-60 characters in length. URLs longer than 80 characters are bad for SEO.

Also, the URL should describe the meaning of your content in three to five words.

2. Keys in the URL

The URL is the first thing a search engine looks at and the first thing that is loaded when you open the page. To get the best conversions, the address must match the topic of your website. For example, if you are writing about search engine optimization, the article address should contain “SEO”.

3. Secure protocol – HTTPS

First we talked about the protocol. HTTP and HTTPS are the connection protocols, and for SEO it is crucial to use HTTPS.

HTTPS is the Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol. So using it will tell your users that they are going to be connected securely. This ensures that the information is properly encrypted.

If you use HTTP, the user may see a warning from the browser that the site is not secure.

4. A suitable first level domain

First-level domain – the prefix at the end of the main page address: “.com”, “.org”, “.biz”, “.ru”, etc. The greatest confidence in search engines use domains, “.com”. So if you get the opportunity to get it, use it.

5. Typography

In order to indicate the space in the url people use a hyphen “-” or an underscore “_”. The obvious question arises of which is better. No matter what you like, use what Google likes. And Google prefers hyphens. Also, don’t use uppercase letters – use lowercase letters only.

6. Minimum stop words

Stop-words in SEO are called auxiliary parts of speech – words that do not carry additional meaning:

  • and,
  • or,
  • in,
  • at,
  • under, etc.

Use stop words in the URL if they make the address readable, and if the difference between “on” and “under” changes the meaning of the sentence.

7. More static URLs and less dynamic URLs

Dynamic URLs adjust to a specific visitor based on their equipment, location, browser, or actions. For example, the $language variable appears on some sites if the user changes their language.

Variables in URLs allow you to make site content more personalized, but it’s not good for SEO. Use static addresses where possible.

8. Simple subfolder structure

The maximum number of subfolders between the domain and the final page address should be no more than two. We are talking about the text between the slashes:

https://site.com/subfolder1/subfolder2/page.html

Remember that short URLs are good for search engine promotion and a small number of folders will help you optimize this.

9. Proper use of canonical tags

Canonical tags allow you to use multiple paths to access a single web page. Use rel=”canonical” attribute on pages. It avoids duplicate content.

By canonicalizing pages with rel=”canonical”, you give your website more traffic and improve search engine rankings.

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