Technical SEO basics: friendly URL address

Technical SEO basics: friendly URL address
Darrius Drew
SEO
It takes approx. 5 minutes to read this article

If you’re new to the world of technical SEO and technical on-page search engine optimization, you may be scratching your head trying to wrap your head around it all. One of the most basic concepts you need to understand is creating friendly URLs (or URLs that are crawlable by search engines). This article will walk you through the basics of friendly addresses and how they help improve your site’s visibility in search engines.

Hello I am here!

This is a specific type of Uniform Resource Locator, and is most commonly used to reference web pages (http). However, a URL can also be used to reference other resources, such as files or images. When creating an address, it’s important to keep in mind that it should be easy to read and understand. 

What does the address consist of?

A URL is made up of several parts, including:

  • protocol,
  • host,
  • path,
  • inquiry,
  • fragment.

The protocol specifies the type of resource or service in the case of a website. The most popular are http and https (this one has a security certificate). Host, the name of our domain that allows us to identify the network within the domain. These are e.g. pl, com, org, net. The task of the path is to locate a file on the server that is to be used by the Internet user, e.g. / category / subcategory /. The query is a parameter, i.e. a string in the form of a pair after the question mark and the & sign. A fragment, or an anchor. It is the part of the address that begins with # and points to a specific element in the body.

What is a friendly URL?

A friendly URL is a clean and readable URL that is easy for users to remember. The URL should also be easily indexed by search engines, which will help your website rank higher in the search engine results pages. Include descriptive words in the URL, use hyphens (-) to separate multiple words instead of underscores (_), also do not include numbers and do not use diacritical marks. The simpler the better.

An unfriendly URL is long, confusing, and difficult to remember. It may also contain symbols or characters that are not easily read or recognized. In addition, an unfriendly URL can be difficult for search engines to index properly. 

Audiences encountering an unfriendly URL will avoid it because it is unreadable and may be an example of spam or a site with dangerous content. So take care of your on-site optimization to improve your online visibility. Besides, they are one of the ranking factors for SERP search engines.

What should you remember about?

Keywords

Keyword placement is a common SEO practice designed to help search engine robots filter your website. Properly selected, natural words will favor positioning. However, remember not to overdo it. Keyword and keyword stuffing can be considered a Black Hat SEO technique by the search engine and impose a penalty on the page.

Length

Another golden rule should be in planning your URL length. If it is too long, it will not be favorable to the user, and it will also look unattractive. The shorter character is easier to read. Remember, however, that the primary purpose of the address is information – to give the recipient a signal what to expect after entering our website.

Can the URL be changed?

Yes, the URL can be changed. However, it’s important to consider whether or not changing the URL will impact your search engine ranking. If you do decide to change the URL, make sure to redirect the old URL to the new one so that you don’t lose any traffic. Additionally, remember to update social media sites with the new URL. To avoid mistakes and mistakes, it is better to entrust this task to professionals. The Wicklow SEO agency will take care of the seo-friendliness of your address and will also take care of all redirects. Among other things, you will avoid the problem of duplicate content.

URL shorteners

Many people on the web use URL shorteners, for example: bit.ly, goo.gl or cutt.ly. The shortener reduces the number of characters of the original URL by writing the address to the new address. They have many advantages, such as a neater view or taking up less space, but they are not very transparent and carry the risk of smuggling dangerous links. So it is better to optimize the address properly or use anchor text.

Wrapping up

Friendly URLs are an important part of technical SEO. They help search engines understand what your page is about, and they can also impact your click-through rate. Keep these tips in mind when creating your own friendly URLs: use keywords, keep them short, and use hyphens to separate words. I recommend linking to pages that have long titles on a different URL because it’s often easier for Googlebot to crawl those pages individually. Remember that you should also clean up old or spammy links from other websites.

best Cork SEO

Photo:Tumisu/pixabay.com

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