SEO Best Practicesfor URLs

What is URL?• URL (Uniform Resource Locator) allows

web users to access the webpage, documents, or any other resources hosted in your server

• It is important that you structure your web urls for your visitors and Bots

6 Best Practices

1. Use Hyphen • Google in its webmasters blog recommends the use

of hyphens.

• For example http://www.example.com/home-insurance is much better than http://www.example.com/homeinsurance.

• Using hyphens to separate words make it much more readable for visitors too.

2. Static over Dynamic URLS • A Common Problem in CMS (Content

Management System) is the generation of dynamic urls.

• Make use of plugins to convert non-readable

dynamic urls to static easy to understand urls. • Plugins Not Available: Use 301 redirects on the

dynamic urls to readable urls.

3. Session Ids and URL Parameters

• Session ids and URL parameters are inevitable for sites with search and sort features

• Exclude such urls by using robot.txt www.example.com/search?id=132 www.example.com/search?id=132&sort=asc

• In Robot.txt use the following entry: User Agent: * Disallow: /search*

4. Mind the Length

• Maximum URL allowed by Internet Explorer is 2,083 characters.

• Stick to 3-5 words in your URL. • Divide Pages to category and sub-category

Pages

5. Keyword in URLs• Use of keywords in the initial part of the URL

can improve the relevance of your webpage and improve click through rate in SERP.

• For Category Page:www.example.com/category

• For Sub-Category Pagewww.example.com/category/sub-category

• For the actual page use the following variations:www.example.com/keyword1-sub-category-categorywww.example.com/keyword1-category-sub-category

• For pages that have long keywords, avoid categories and sub-categories altogetherwww.example.com/keywordWord1-keywordWord2-keywordWord3www.example.com/keyPhrase-with-three-words

6. Case Consistency

• Avoid ALL CAPs in your URLwww.example.com/BEST-OFFER

• If you are going to use First Letter Caps for all categories and sub-category pages, stick with it. Don’t change after 100 pages.www.example.com/Categorywww.example.com/Category/Sub-category

• Use of lower case in URL keywords has been found effective. Not for SEO but to improve click through rates in SERPs

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