URL Optimization: URL Structure

What is a URL?

URL, or Universal Resource Locator, is a web address that locates a web page on the internet. Search engines need to find and index pages on our website, and that is what they need URLs for. Overly complex URLs are difficult to crawl and index for search engines and less clickable to users. URL appears right above each web page in the SERPs.

Why should we optimize URLs?

Would we really want to click a page in the search results that has a URL similar to the one below?

http://example.com/ahfgdsdf/44153?=recipe-423432-123123-1246732

Instead, wouldn’t we be more inclined to click a page with a URL like the one below?

http://example.com/holiday-special/apple-pie

As it turns out, other than what our website looks like, the URL also matters in creating a complete impression.

In short, SEO-friendly URLs give two important benefits:

• Improved user experience

• Improved experience for crawlers

Optimizing the URL structure

Below is an illustration of what a typical URL structure looks like: