URL Structure Best Practices for SEO-Friendly Websites

The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of a webpage is its unique address on the internet. While it might seem like a small technical detail, the structure of your URLs can have a surprising impact on both your search engine optimization (SEO) and your user experience.

A well-structured URL is easy for both humans and search engines to understand. It provides clear, contextual clues about the content of the page. A poorly structured URL, on the other hand, is confusing and can hurt your ability to rank.

Let's explore the best practices for creating SEO-friendly URLs.

Why Does URL Structure Matter?

A clean, optimized URL structure is important for three main reasons:

1. It Improves User Experience: A simple, readable URL helps users understand what a page is about before they even click on it. It also makes it easier for them to remember and share the link. Which of these is easier to understand?

   • yoursite.com/blog/post?id=123
   • yoursite.com/blog/how-to-choose-a-domain-name The second one is clearly better.

2. It's a Minor Ranking Factor: While not a major ranking signal, the keywords in your URL can provide a small but helpful relevance signal to search engines. A URL that contains the target keyword for the page can have a slight advantage over one that doesn't.

3. It Affects Click-Through Rate (CTR): A clean, descriptive URL in the search results can look more trustworthy and appealing to users, which can lead to a higher click-through rate.

Best Practices for SEO-Friendly URLs

1. Keep Them Short and Simple

Shorter URLs are generally better. They are easier to read, copy, paste, and share on social media. Try to remove any unnecessary words or parameters.

• Bad: yoursite.com/blog/2025/07/04/our-8-best-tips-for-making-a-great-website-for-your-business
• Good: yoursite.com/blog/website-design-tips

2. Use Your Primary Keyword

Your URL is a great place to include the primary keyword that you are targeting for that page. This reinforces the page's topic for search engines.

• Keyword: "small business web design"
• URL: yoursite.com/services/small-business-web-design

3. Use Hyphens to Separate Words

When you need to separate words in your URL, always use hyphens (-). Do not use underscores (_) or spaces. Google's official recommendation is to use hyphens, as they are treated as word separators, while underscores are not.

• Good: my-new-blog-post
• Bad: my_new_blog_post or my new blog post

4. Use Lowercase Letters

URL structures can sometimes be case-sensitive on some servers. To avoid any potential duplicate content issues or confusion, it's a best practice to always use lowercase letters in your URLs.

5. Create a Logical, Hierarchical Structure

Your URL structure should reflect the information architecture of your website. Use subfolders to create a logical hierarchy. This is helpful for both users and search engines to understand where they are on your site.

• Good Structure:
  • yoursite.com/services/
  • yoursite.com/services/web-design
  • yoursite.com/services/seo

This structure clearly shows that "web design" and "seo" are services offered by the business.

6. Avoid Unnecessary Words and Characters

Remove "stop words" (like "a," "an," "the," "but") and other unnecessary words from your URLs to keep them clean and concise.

• Less Good: yoursite.com/blog/a-guide-on-how-to-do-keyword-research
• Better: yoursite.com/blog/how-to-do-keyword-research

Also, avoid using special characters or parameters (?, =, &) in your URLs unless they are absolutely necessary for your site's functionality.

7. Be Consistent

Choose a URL structure and stick with it across your entire website. Consistency makes your site easier to navigate and understand.

A Note on Changing URLs

Once a page is published and indexed, you should avoid changing its URL if at all possible. Changing a URL is like changing a street address—all the old links pointing to it will break.

If you absolutely must change a URL, you must implement a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. A 301 redirect permanently forwards users and search engines to the new address and passes most of the SEO value from the old URL to the new one. Failing to do this will result in lost traffic and rankings.

Conclusion

While URL structure might seem like a minor detail, it's a foundational element of good technical SEO and user experience. By creating short, descriptive, and logical URLs that include your target keywords, you provide clear signals to both users and search engines about your content. It's a simple practice that contributes to a more professional, accessible, and well-optimized website.