How to Optimise URLs for SEO And Readers
It’s important to optimise URLs, both for readers and search engines.
A URL holds much more than a unique address for a webpage on the internet. It offers signals that helps search engines interpret the content of a page, its purpose and its target audience. Like all signals, some can be informative and strong, and some can be misleading and poor.
Take a look as we share our checklist to optimise URLs for SEO, store it in a safe place and reference it when you publish new content.
1. Have You Removed Unnecessary Words
Words that carry little meaning can be removed for brevity and readability.
For example: google.com/how-to-write-your-own-urls-for-optimisation
Could be changed to: google.com/write-urls-for-optimisation
Some may argue to also remove ‘for’ from the URL but the world won’t end if it stays in.
A few examples include:
- – To
- – With
- – And
- – That
- – Is
- – What
- – From
2. Is Your URL Readable?
Search engines need to be able to crawl your URL and understand what the content in the web page should be about. So, as long as you add targeted keywords and avoid unnecessary words, your URL should make perfect sense.
3. Does Your URL Feature Your Targeted Keyword?
One way for search engines to understand your page content is through the keywords that are in your URL. For full optimisation, ensure your URL features your targeted keyword for the page content.
4. Have You Included Hyphens?
Hyphens support readability. This-is-much-easier to readthanthis, both for search engines and readers.
As long as you keep search engines and your readers in mind, you can’t go far wrong. If you have any questions about optimising URLs, let us know in the comments section below.
About the author:
Marie Harwood is a Digital Marketing Assistant at Different Gravy Digital, Hale, Cheshire.
Different Gravy Digital are a full service Digital Marketing Agency operating in the Hospitality & Leisure, Financial Services, Legal & Property sectors. Products and services range from; 3D & 360° Tours, Website Design & Build, Social Media, Video Production, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Content Creation, Email Marketing, Online Feedback / Review Systems and Paid Advertising (Google, Bing and Social Media).
Contact Details:
marie@differentgravydigital.co.uk
0161 706 0004
120a Ashley Road, Hale, Altrincham, Cheshire, WA14 2UN