It is pretty commonly accepted that search engines reward websites for having short, static, and clean URLs. Long, non-descriptive URLs can not only frustrate users, but can keep valuable information from the search spiders also. Here is a list of 10 rules to follow when creating your website’s url structure.
- Shorter is Better- Always try to keep your URLs short whenever possible. You want to make it as easy as possible to copy and paste, write-down, or read the URL to someone else.
- Use Descriptive Folder and File Names- Make your URLs as obvious as possible. If a user could accurately guess what the page is about after just reading the webpage address, the search spiders will also be able to glean important information from the URL also.
- Words Beat Numbers- Avoid using numbers for categories or folders. You will be much better off using a structure like /entertainment/jokes/ than category22/2/. Even if you aren’t able to use very descriptive words, it will still be better than using meaningless numbers.
- Be Careful With Subdomains- I recommend against using subdomains whenever possible on your website. Subdomains always have the possibility of being treated separately from the main domain in terms of passing Pagerank. If you are using subdomains, be sure that there is good interlinking between the subdomains and the primary domain in order to avoid any loss of Pagerank.
- Separate With Hyphens- Whenever you create a URL with multiple words that make up a phrase, it is best to use hyphens to separate each word.
- Eliminate Unnecessary Folders- It is always best to use as few folders as possible. You should never have any empty or unnecessary folders on your domain.
- The Power of Keywords- Using your targeted keyword or phrase in your folder and/or file names can provide an extra benefit for your page’s ranking for that term.
- Always Use Lowercase- URLs are capable of accepting both uppercase and lowercase characters, so a user browsing to /Features.html may end up seeing your 404 page instead of /features.html. It is smart to play it as safely and keep all folder and file names in the lowercase.
- Keep Things Static- Although Google recently stated that dynamic URLs can be read by its spider just as well as static pages, it is still best to stick with static URLs whenever possible. Not only are dynamic URLs ugly to look at, but there are some search engines that treat dynamic links differently.
- No Extra Characters- Don’t append any extra data onto the end of your URLs. If you can remove characters from the end of your URL and still get to the same content, there is no reason to have the extra characters. It will just cause confusion for your readers and search engines.
