What is a URL?
A URL (Uniform Resource Locator), also known as a node or a web address specifies the location of pages.
The URL consists of 5 parts
- Scheme
- Domain name
- Path to file
- Parameters
- Anchor
An example is
https://mojodojo.io/au/services/seo?isebook=no#home
In the URL above
Scheme:https://
Domain name: MojoDojo.com.au/mojodojo
Path to file: seo
Parameters: ?isebook=no
Anchor: #home
How long should a URL be?
ULRs should be shorter and concise. A URL alone should be enough to tell a user what the resource is about.
The part of the URL that identifies the page is called the URL slug. A url slug may have parent pages or categories directly above it.
In the following example, the word “seo” is the url slug.
mojodojo.io/au/services/seo/
This URL is also called a friendly URL. This is because it does not have any query parameters or dynamic text.
A friendly URL is also a recipe for higher type in traffic.
The following are some best practices with URL structure
- It helps Google understand what the page is about
- It helps the visitor know what the page is about.
Furthermore, a user is more likely to click links with human-readable slug.
The friendly URL slug serves as a check against the anchor text manipulation.
- Keep your URLs short
- Use a primary keyword in the URL slug
- Avoid keyword stuffing the URL
- Use a logical parent/child relationship
- Avoid dynamic URL or query parameters
- Make your URL available only on one version of the site (www vs non www)
- Avoid stop words in the URL
- Use canonicalization
All things being equal, short URLs have a higher CTR than longer URLs.
When all other factors are equal, a relevancy score can be won by having additional semantic value in the URL.