As inconsequential as they may seem, URL structures matter a lot in SEO optimization.

A URL or Uniform Resource Location is the web address we enter into a browser tab to visit a web page.

Many people focusing on optimizing their websites don't give as much importance to optimizing their URL structure.

The question is – should you care?

Yes, you most definitely should because Google does!

There are many disadvantages of a poor URL structure, including poor user experience, indexing issues, inefficient crawl efficiency (of search engine crawlers), suppressed keyword relevance, and may even act as a hindrance to content discoverability.

What Is URL Structure?

A URL constitutes the following elements –

Protocol

It signifies how the browser accesses web page's information and is usually either http:// or https://

Root Domain

It is the name of the website that's unique, similar to human fingerprints.

It is usually recommended to keep easy-to-remember, catchy, and brandable root domains as user-friendly URLs that stick with the users for longer!

Subdomain

A subdomain is basically the prefix added to the root domain to separate a section of the site.

While the most commonly used subdomain is www, it depends on the website owners or admin as to what they want to use.

For further clarity, let's look at another example – mysubdomain.mywebsite.com

TLD

TLD or Top-Level Domain follows the root domain or the website's unique name and can be .com, .info, .net, .ai, .org, .edu, etc.

Slug

Slug is under which the website's pages are placed.

For example – www.legiit.com/blog

In the above URL, 'blog' is an example of slug.

Article Permalink

The article permalink is what follows the slug, telling visitors what the page is about.

For example - https://legiit.com/blog/how-to-get-traffic-to-your-website

Here, the article's permalink (starts after 'blog') tells what the article is about. Keeping it simple and straightforward is one of the URL best practices.

Article permalink is a persistent link that will help you revisit a specific article or a page on the internet.

What Are the Best Practices for URL Structure?

Now, without further ado, let's dive into the top 12 URL best practices –

1# Follow A Good URL Structure

Determining and creating a URL hierarchy is essential before building a website.

It can get tricky as there's no defined way to create the best URL structure, and it can vary depending on the site's purpose.

However, it's important to keep a simple, intuitive, and logical URL structure that's easy to remember and uses relevant keywords.

An intuitive and catchy URL structure is not only easy for the visitors to remember but also helps search engines understand the relationship between the website's different pages.

Once you have a well-defined URL structure, it becomes easier to pick the right keywords for each of the created web pages.

2# Always Use HTTPS Protocol

HTTPS is the secure version that's more reliable and trusted by the search engines as well as the users.

The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encrypts the exchange of data and communication happening between the website and the browser, ensuring no privacy breach or stealing of information/data takes place.

As the communication is end-to-end encrypted, even if hackers trap the data, they can't decode or read it.

The usage of HTTPS helps instill trust in your website visitors, especially when making a purchase using credit or debit card details, feeding phone numbers, email addresses, and postal addresses in the billing section, and sharing any other private details.

As straightforward as it may sound, there are nearly 30 percent of the websites on the internet that still don't use HTTPS.

Most users on the internet today simply won't even visit or browse websites that aren't using HTTPS protocol; forget purchasing from them!

Moreover, using HTTPS is a Google ranking factor, and if you aren't using it already, you're losing tons of customers/revenue, even if you may be doing everything else right.

3# Choose an Appropriate TLD

While TLDs don't necessarily impact your SEO optimization efforts or search engine rankings, you should try and use the ones that align with your niche or business.

For example, if you're an educational institution, using .edu is ideally recommended. If you run a non-profit organization, using .org is the best option.

For most commercial websites, .com TLD is the recommended option.

You can also use country-wise TLDs if you only serve one specific country. For example, if your focus is only US, use.US, .in TLD for website/business operating only in India, .au TLD for companies only operating in Australia, and so on.

With that said, refrain from using TLDs such as .biz or .info as they've been perceived as spam or scams by users for long. If you do use them, brace yourself for a tough journey ahead in terms of SEO optimization, especially when trying to earn high-quality backlinks.

Start your SEO journey by creating user-friendly URLs!

4# Customize the Web Page's URL To Sound Relevant

Publish content on your site with clear intent and purpose. The URL of these web pages should be relevant, easy to understand, and not confusing.

If the page's URL is filled with randomly generated numbers or alphabets, edit it to sound descriptive and relevant to the page's content. It drastically helps enhance user experience and can possibly boost the click-through rate.

5# Follow KISS Principle (Keep It Short & Simple)

While keeping the URL relevant to the page's description is important, it doesn't have to be unnecessarily long, especially if the post's title is unusually long.

In such cases, when the URL becomes too long, it's recommended that the URL be shortened. Moreover, using short URLs is one of the widely used URL best practices.

6# Use Appropriate Keywords for SEO Optimization

Keywords are fundamental to achieving SEO success, so why not use them in your URLs?

Using meaningful keywords relevantly in your URL is a good way to send relevancy signals to the search engines, helping our web pages become quickly discoverable as well as bolstering the chance of ranking higher.

However, it's important to note that you mustn't stuff keywords in your URLs. It will almost always backfire, negatively influencing your SEO optimization efforts.

Keep a fine balance while using keywords in the URL, and limit it to using one or two keywords only when relevant to the page's content.

Additional Tip – Try to add the same keywords you used in the URL to your meta description, helping your page stand out as search engines bold these words when users search for them.

7# Use Hyphens, Not Spaces

One of the best URL best practices is using hyphens to replace spaces.

Do not use underscores instead of hyphens. As using hyphens is among the standard URL best practices, the users can easily understand where there are spaces between words.

8# Use Lowercase Letters

Anything that comes after the domain name is the case-sensitive portion of the URL.

So, even if you type LEGIIT.COM, you'll still be taken to Legiit.com.

However, if you type legiit.com/BLOG instead of legiit.com/blog – you'll end up visiting a 404 page instead of Legiit's blog.

Always use lowercase letters when structuring URLs. If you've used uppercase letters, then it's essential you update those links and redirect them to the new URLs.

9# Redirect Your Old URLs For SEO Optimization

Over time, the old content may be moved to a new page or a completely new domain. If that's what you're doing, make sure you leverage 301 redirects to ensure the visitors go to where they intended to.

If this is not done, the users, as well as the search engine crawlers, will see the 404 error code. It not only sends a bad SEO signal to the search engines but also negatively influences user experience.

10# Avoid Using Numbers

Adding numbers to the URL clutters it unnecessarily.

As discussed above, keeping the URLs short and simple is one of the important URL best practices. Adding numbers makes the URLs way longer than they should be.

For example, you don't want a URL to look like this – yoursite.com/blog/fat-loss-tips-452050339/

However, using numbers relevantly is fine, like – yoursite.com/blog/5-fat-loss-tips/

Similarly, don't use dates or special characters in the URL.

11# Using Subfolders to Organize Content

Using subfolders is a common URL best practice and is also helpful for SEO optimization. However, make sure to organize it logically to help users understand their trail and identify where they're on the website.

The purpose of the subfolder is to let users know the type of content found at that particular URL. It also ensures search engines can crawl through the page and understand the content better.

An example of a good subfolder – https://yoursite.com/blog/weight-loss-tips/

An example of a bad subfolder - https://yoursite.com/folder2/weight-loss-tips/

Ideally, for a short and sweet URL, one should limit the use of too many folders or categories.

However, it is not always possible for large websites to use subfolders to define a hierarchy, as it becomes a need rather than just an option.

In such cases, it's important to categorize and use subfolders smartly.

For example – yoursite.com/men/shirts/zara

12# Be Consistent

Consistency is the key to success in all walks of life, and it is no different when it comes to SEO optimization.

It is the principle that applies to URL best practices as well.

In other words, if you use categories for one topic of your blog, make sure to use them for other topics or sections as well.

The blog URLs should be optimized for SEO, and consistency in those URLs is more important than it appears.

Final Thoughts

It's important to know and follow the URL best practices to achieve SEO success. The idea is to keep the URLs short, simple, and consistent, as well as organize the URL structure using the right keywords.

Always avoid using stop words, numbers, special characters, parameters, and dynamic URLs. Doing these will hamper end-user experience and devalue your website in terms of search engine rankings.

Ensuring the URL structure is neatly organized and optimized isn't always easy, but it certainly pays in the long term.

Following the URL best practices mentioned above will help you optimize your URL structure for SEO optimization while also boosting user experience drastically.

Employing these techniques consistently over time will help improve PageRank and, eventually, your search engine rankings!