Every website knows the importance of search engine optimization or SEO. It is an important part of any online marketing strategy and there are many elements to it.
For instance, you can spend time regularly updating your blog and writing SEO-friendly posts, as well as using certain keywords on website pages. An effective SEO strategy is going to involve a combination of techniques.
But, one element that a lot of website owners forget about is the URL. This is something that you can optimize too. Let’s take a look at why an SEO-friendly URL is going to be important for your website.
What Is a URL?
First of all, let’s make sure we all understand what a URL is. This stands for uniform resource locator and this is what is going to be the online address for a webpage. Often, it is going to be made up of your domain name. Then, the other part should be what is on the page so that people know what they are visiting. For instance, take a look at https://www.clickslice.co.uk/building-an-seo-friendly-url/. This shows you exactly what you can expect when you hit the link. You know that you are going to get content on building an SEO-friendly URL. This helps the user, as well as the search engine.
Search engine optimization is something that is important and it helps you to drive traffic to your website. You probably already use SEO strategies for web pages you have. But, did you know that it is also going to help if you have an SEO-friendly URL?
Why Should You Have an SEO-Friendly URL?
Have you ever viewed a website and the URL makes no sense? For instance, it can contain the domain name, and then there are a bunch of different symbols, letters, and numbers. Not only does this look bad, but it can also be very unhelpful to an online user. A search engine aims to give users the best experience on the internet. In other words, they want to deliver information and websites that people want to see. They are not interested in who you are or what your business does. Search engines just want to make sure users are safe and are able to explore the internet.
One of the first things a search engine is going to look at is your URL. Namely, this is going to explain what your website is about and you want it to be relevant to your business or blog. For instance, it is not going to make a lot of sense to have a domain mentioning soccer when you are selling makeup products. Search engines want your URL to be relevant and explain what your website is about. Remember that they are most concerned about giving a user the most appropriate information.
So, this is where having an SEO-friendly URL is going to be important. You want to use keywords and phrases that are relevant and that are going to allow your website to be recognised by search engines. Think about how you want to use keywords in titles and headings. You also want to use them in your URL for the same reasons. It is going to be a lot easier for search engine bots to crawl. Therefore, when a search engine understands what is on your web pages, you can rank better. In addition, users are going to know more about the URL and are more likely to gain value from them.
Tips for an SEO-Friendly URL
If you think that your URLs can be improved, now is the time to do it. It does not have to be complicated and there are a few simple things you can do to improve your URL for users, as well as search engines.
Start with choosing a keyword. Think of one that is going to help with ranking, plus help to describe the webpage for users. Try not to keyword stuff your URL as this can be damaging for ranking. You can separate words with hyphens. This makes the URL easier to read. In particular, Google has specified that hyphens are better to use than underscores or even spaces.
You also want to keep your URL short. While you might feel like you have a lot to say, this can become too complicated. Keep it short and snappy, getting right to the point. Do not use any unnecessary symbols or numbers. You also want to make sure that the keywords you use are lowercase.