Friendly URLs and SEO

Here is a subject that generates a lot of discussion: SEO-friendly URLs. Should we include the article category in the URL or not? Should we make it short or add some extra elements like publication type, date, or category? Should we use keywords in the URL?

In this post I will explain a little bit about friendly URLs and try to elaborate an answer to the questions presented above. Keep in mind that a URL that is friendly to one site may not be completely friendly to another. In other words, friendly URLs vary according to the type of the site. There are some general rules but the most important thing is to have your visitor in mind when you define your URL structure.

Read also: 10 Important items for on-page SEO

General rules for friendly URLs

Regardless of the type of site you have, some rules will always apply:

• Your URL must have focus. Do not use connecting terms (linking words) such as “the”, “a”, “of”, “one” etc. Words that bring no relevance to the URL should be avoided. Make your URL clean and objective.
• Keep your URLs short. It’s not that search engines dislike long URLs, but shorter URLs are more user-friendly and help keep the focus on the subject matter. Keep in mind that there are other ways to show the user where he is without the URL. You can use navigation trails for example.
• Do not use underscores (_) to connect the terms in a URL. Always use a hyphen (-).

These are rules that apply to all sites. As I mentioned earlier, the optimal friendly URLs vary from site to site so here are some examples:

Friendly URLs for institutional sites

If you have an institutional site with information about your company or services, try to keep your URLs short and objective.

https://seudominio.com.br/contato
https://seudominio.com.br/sobre
https://seudominio.com.br/servicos

Friendly URLs for Online Stores

If you have an online store your URLs can be structured in different ways:

https://sualoja.com.br/nome-do-produto
https://sualoja.com.br/categoria-do-produto/nome-do-produto

Friendly URLs should help your visitors. If your store has many departments or categories and this helps your visitor find the products within your store then consider adding the category of these products in the URL. This way your URL, navigation path, and menus will constantly tell the visitor where he is.

User-friendly URLs for blogs, magazines, and news sites

If you have a blog, magazine site or a news site there are several ways to structure your URLs:

• https://seudominio.com.br/titulo-do-artigo
  If your site has a good structure (organization, layout and navigation) you can choose to display only the title of your article in the URL. In this case your menu, navigation path, and other site elements will tell the visitor where he is.
• https://seudominio.com.br/categoria/titulo-do-artigo
  If your site writes about different topics, adding the topic (category, tag, etc.) to the URL structure can make it a more SEO-friendly URL.
• https://seudominio.com.br/dd/mm/aaaa/titulo-do-post
If your site produces content on a daily basis and your content is contextualized by dates you might consider using them in the URL. For example, let’s say you write about a travel journal or updates to a certain software, in these cases it is convenient to use a file by dates and indicate this to the visitor. Only use dates in the URL if it makes sense for your content.

Conclusion on Friendly URLs and SEO

There are several ways to create SEO-friendly URLs. It all depends on the type of site you have and its content structure. News sites for example can have numerous friendly URL structures. The main thing is: keep your URLs focused. Add relevant information and make use of the keywords you want to rank for.

Continue reading: Improving Your Technical SEO Audit

Continue reading: The definitive guide to WordPress SEO