In SEO, URLs can massively impact your website optimization if they are properly created. Without a doubt, the top points of interest in SEO are the keywords. These should be placed in meta descriptions, Title Tags, alt text on images and your optimised content.
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by Irina Ciutaco
April 21, 2021
In SEO, URLs can massively impact your website optimization if they are properly created. Without a doubt, the top points of interest in SEO are the keywords. These should be placed in meta descriptions, Title Tags, alt text on images and your optimised content.
There are 3,5 billion Google searches that are conducted every day and the online visibility in the Google Search Results Page is mandatory for your website’s success. Nowadays, ranking in Google Search Results Page is no easy task as online competition is higher than before. Powerful SEO tools such as Google Search Console Content Guidelines can help you with stepping in front of your competitors.
If in our latest blog post we had highlighted the steps of creating an SEO optimisation strategy, today, we will tackle the most important guidelines for creating a powerful URL architecture.
There are 3,5 billion Google searches that are conducted every day and the online visibility in the Google Search Results Page is mandatory for your website’s success. Nowadays, ranking in Google Search Results Page is no easy task as online competition is higher than before. Powerful SEO tools such as Google Search Console Content Guidelines can help you with stepping in front of your competitors.
If in our latest blog post we had highlighted the steps of creating an SEO optimisation strategy, today, we will tackle the most important guidelines for creating a powerful URL architecture.
There is no better way to optimize your Meta Titles than by adding consistency between your page titles and your SEO friendly URLs.
How to do that?
Let’s imagine that your page Meta title is ‘’Digital Commerce Platform‘’.
One user who searches for this keyword on the Google Search Results Page will be expecting to find an exact page that matches both.
Why implement it?
To create trust and authority concerning your users
Page title: Digital Commerce Platform – Next Generation Technology
Your SEO-friendly should be:
https://www.kooomo.com/en/e-commerce-solution/digital-commerce-platform
How to do that?
Let’s imagine that your page Meta title is ‘’Digital Commerce Platform‘’.
One user who searches for this keyword on the Google Search Results Page will be expecting to find an exact page that matches both.
Why implement it?
To create trust and authority concerning your users
Page title: Digital Commerce Platform – Next Generation Technology
Your SEO-friendly should be:
https://www.kooomo.com/en/e-commerce-solution/digital-commerce-platform
2. Remove useless words
Nevertheless, your SEO friendly URLs should target two audiences: Google bot and its users. The URLs should be concise and not have unnecessary words in their structure, such as: ‘’and’’, ‘’the’’.
A proper URL should be like this:
https://www.domain.com/optimize-url-structure-seo
Nevertheless, your SEO friendly URLs should target two audiences: Google bot and its users. The URLs should be concise and not have unnecessary words in their structure, such as: ‘’and’’, ‘’the’’.
A proper URL should be like this:
https://www.domain.com/optimize-url-structure-seo
3. Do not use punctuation marks
Content marketing practices have evolved and companies have started to invest more and more into creating useful resources which can answer frequently asked questions. Your page Meta Title could be a question or contain commas, parentheses and so on.
While it is perfectly acceptable to use punctuation marks in your Meta Titles and Descriptions, do not use them in your URLs as they can be confusing for the search engines and users will be distracted.
In case you would like to learn which characters shouldn’t be used in an URL, read more details on the list from Perishable Press.
Content marketing practices have evolved and companies have started to invest more and more into creating useful resources which can answer frequently asked questions. Your page Meta Title could be a question or contain commas, parentheses and so on.
While it is perfectly acceptable to use punctuation marks in your Meta Titles and Descriptions, do not use them in your URLs as they can be confusing for the search engines and users will be distracted.
In case you would like to learn which characters shouldn’t be used in an URL, read more details on the list from Perishable Press.
4. Use hyphens
Separate expressive words in your URL architecture to increase the chances that the users and search engines pay attention to your pages.
There has been some debate in the SEO forums about the use of hyphens and underscores and whether Google is treating them identically.
To cut the story short, hyphens are viewed as word separators which increase the importance of SEO URLs, while underscores are seen as word joiners.
In this URL’s case: https://www.domain.com/optimize-url-structure-seo, Google would interpret as ‘optimize URL structure SEO’ but in this case https://www.domain.com/optimize_url_structure_seo, it would see it as ‘ ‘’optimizeurlstructureseo’’.
A conclusion to this topic would be that Google’s understanding of your URL containing hyphens is more accessible to be read by crawlers than the one containing underscores.
Separate expressive words in your URL architecture to increase the chances that the users and search engines pay attention to your pages.
There has been some debate in the SEO forums about the use of hyphens and underscores and whether Google is treating them identically.
To cut the story short, hyphens are viewed as word separators which increase the importance of SEO URLs, while underscores are seen as word joiners.
In this URL’s case: https://www.domain.com/optimize-url-structure-seo, Google would interpret as ‘optimize URL structure SEO’ but in this case https://www.domain.com/optimize_url_structure_seo, it would see it as ‘ ‘’optimizeurlstructureseo’’.
A conclusion to this topic would be that Google’s understanding of your URL containing hyphens is more accessible to be read by crawlers than the one containing underscores.
5.Remove dynamic parameters
A dynamic URL results from a database of a website or the URL of a website that is running a script. Dynamic URLs usually contain characters such as: ?, &, %, +, CGI-bin, .CGI is very specific for e-commerce websites.
For SEO purposes, avoid using URLs that contain dynamic parameters because search engines prefer static SEO friendly URLs that have a way around creating SEO friendly URLs. In case you have a content management system that automatically creates URLs with parameters, you should use Rebrandly, which is a tool that brings you more authority over your URLs.
A dynamic URL results from a database of a website or the URL of a website that is running a script. Dynamic URLs usually contain characters such as: ?, &, %, +, CGI-bin, .CGI is very specific for e-commerce websites.
For SEO purposes, avoid using URLs that contain dynamic parameters because search engines prefer static SEO friendly URLs that have a way around creating SEO friendly URLs. In case you have a content management system that automatically creates URLs with parameters, you should use Rebrandly, which is a tool that brings you more authority over your URLs.
6. Do not use subfolders
In SEO, URLs should be as short as they possibly can be. Google prefers them compared to URLs that contain many subfolders because this structure is harder to be crawled by the bots. Our tip is to generate SEO friendly URLs, without adding unnecessary subfolders.A good showcase of an URL with subfolders could be:
https://www.domain.com/2021/13/04/what-is-the-best-SEO-practice
While a URL for SEO would have subfolders removed like this:
https://www.domain.com/what-is-the-best-SEO-practice
7. Exclude redirections
On one hand, redirections can harm your site and can influence usability so our advice is to diminish them. This information is divided with the search engines and incorporated in the Google SEO algorithm that can rank your website.
On the other hand, redirects are often not perceived correctly by search engines, so these ranking signals can not be taken into account.
Therefore, you should avoid the redirections but where a redirection is needed, implement a 301 one – this can develop between 90-99% of link juice to the page that is redirected.
On one hand, redirections can harm your site and can influence usability so our advice is to diminish them. This information is divided with the search engines and incorporated in the Google SEO algorithm that can rank your website.
On the other hand, redirects are often not perceived correctly by search engines, so these ranking signals can not be taken into account.
Therefore, you should avoid the redirections but where a redirection is needed, implement a 301 one – this can develop between 90-99% of link juice to the page that is redirected.
8.Use a descriptive domain
Domains are composed of three parts:
TLD, that is a Top-level domain
Domain name
Optional subdomain
In SEO, it is highly recommended to have a good website domain that gives relevance to your brands and which can improve readability for users.
As reported by Moz, ‘’because of search engine’s growing reliance on accessibility and usability as a ranking factor, the easier a domain or an URL is to be read by humans, the better is for search engines too’’.
Therefore, our advice is that you acquire a descriptive, decisive domain that is easily read by both visitors and search engines.
Domains are composed of three parts:
TLD, that is a Top-level domain
Domain name
Optional subdomain
In SEO, it is highly recommended to have a good website domain that gives relevance to your brands and which can improve readability for users.
As reported by Moz, ‘’because of search engine’s growing reliance on accessibility and usability as a ranking factor, the easier a domain or an URL is to be read by humans, the better is for search engines too’’.
Therefore, our advice is that you acquire a descriptive, decisive domain that is easily read by both visitors and search engines.
9. Create shorter URLs
As we have highlighted before, one main topic in generating SEO URLs is readability. The purpose is to organize one URL in such a way that can be faster indexed by search engines and enhance search engine rankings. Therefore, you should create a shorter URL structure for your eCommerce website.
10. Generate personalized SEO URLs
Creating a 100% perfect SEO friendly URL is not always easy. An URL structure can be out-of-control, even if there was no alternative in choosing the domain name or you cannot manage your website’s subfolders. Hopefully, branded links combine all the requirements for a friendly SEO URL architecture.
Moreover, branded URLs are decisive as they provide valuable information about the content that you are sharing and they can increase CTRs up to 39%.
As we have highlighted before, one main topic in generating SEO URLs is readability. The purpose is to organize one URL in such a way that can be faster indexed by search engines and enhance search engine rankings. Therefore, you should create a shorter URL structure for your eCommerce website.
10. Generate personalized SEO URLs
Creating a 100% perfect SEO friendly URL is not always easy. An URL structure can be out-of-control, even if there was no alternative in choosing the domain name or you cannot manage your website’s subfolders. Hopefully, branded links combine all the requirements for a friendly SEO URL architecture.
Moreover, branded URLs are decisive as they provide valuable information about the content that you are sharing and they can increase CTRs up to 39%.
Conclusion:
Generating a good SEO friendly structure can progress your website’s visibility in search engines and can help you reach a guaranteed success in the Google Search Engine Results Page. By taking into account our tips on generating SEO friendly URLs, it can grant you the possibility to boost your website and increase your visibility.
Generating a good SEO friendly structure can progress your website’s visibility in search engines and can help you reach a guaranteed success in the Google Search Engine Results Page. By taking into account our tips on generating SEO friendly URLs, it can grant you the possibility to boost your website and increase your visibility.
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