How to make SEO-Friendly URLs

URLs are really a big deal to Search Engine Rankings.

Nice and well-optimized URLs can bring you on top.

Bad URLs can leave you behind competition forever.

I will separate this post into 2 sections.

1. Things that apply for all kind of websites.

Include Focus Keyword in URL

• If possible include the focus keyword at the beginning of the URL right after your base URL(domain).
• Keep them shorter and avoid keyword stuffing.
• URLs should be clean and consistent.

Example:
https://yourwebsiteurl.com/focus-keyword

Describe your product/content

It should say everything on first sight.

E-commerce product page about Nike Air Max 720 Men Shoes.

I would use this URL :

https://www.yourdomain.com/nike-air-max-720-men-shoes

URL example is self-explanatory and Search Engines will love it.

Use Dashes Not Underscores

Another really important thing when talking about how to make SEO-friendly URLs.

Big G (Google) said they prefer dashes. No one knows why, but everyone follows after the statement.

Never use URLs without dashes.

Example:

https://www.yourdomain.com/nikeairmax720menshoes

It’s ugly, right? What is ugly for the human eyes, it’s not preferred for Search Engines as well.

Avoid Typos in URLs

One letter can change the whole meaning of your URL, so please check twice before publishing an URL.

Lowercase letters

Since the domain names are unified and always in lowercase, you should follow the same structure for URLs.

It’s nicer and everyone prefers it.

Secure Sockets Layer(SSL)

Makes your website to start with https:// which is really important to earn trust from your customers, but also from the engines.

If you have an e-commerce shop, then SSL will create a trusted environment where potential customers feel confident in making purchases.

And that’s all nice when we are talking about static URLs.

Unfortunately, we are in the era of dynamic websites and most of the solutions already have a pre-built URL structure.

Remove Extensions

.html, .aspx, .php … extensions in the end of your url.

It’s a common case in some custom developed websites.

Magento as one of the most famous e-commerce platforms still uses .html at the end of the URLs.

2. Tips and tricks for specific website types(e-commerce, blogs, portfolio).

It’s always a question what kind of URL structure you should use.

Well, the answer is not so simple. If you are starting a new website, and reading this post you will have a clue how to do it, but if you already have a running website with already defined URLs you need to be really careful.

Depending on your website type, you can implement a different technique to make nicer and SEO-friendly URLs.

E-Commerce

Let’s say you are running an e-commerce shop that sells shoes.

Of course, there are million possible combinations for categorization and product creation, but I will assume the following structure to make things clear.

Top Level Categories:

• Men’s Shoes
• Women’s Shoes

Subcategories :

• Nike (Men’s Shoes)
• Addidas (Men’s Shoes)
• Puma (Women’s Shoes)
• Lacoste (Women’s Shoes)

Products :

• Nike Air Max 720 Men’s Shoes ( Men’s Shoes & Nike categories)
• Adidas Harden Vol 3. Men’s Shoes (Men’s Shoes & Adidas categories)
• Puma California Embossed Floral Women’s Shoes (Women’s Shoes & Puma categories)
• Lacoste Master Leather Women’s Shoes (Women’s Shoes & Lacoste categories)

The focus is always on category and product page URLs.

So the following structure will be the best in the mentioned case:

For top categories:

https://yourdomain.com/mens-shoes/

https://yourdomain.com/womens-shoes/

As you can see they look nice and clean.

Important notice: Don’t use ” ‘ ” in the URL. Use them in the meta titles or descriptions but never in the URLs.

For subcategories:

https://yourdomain.com/mens-shoes/nike/

https://yourdomain.com/womens-shoes/lacoste/

Why? If the URL is just https://yourdomain.com/nike/ for example.

It will be too general. Shoes are not the only products of Nike.

Be more specific for possible visitors on Google.

For products:

In most cases, your URLs will be generated from the product name.

That’s how dynamic websites and CMS platforms are working.

Let’s take a look at this product:

Puma California Embossed Floral Women’s Shoes

The desired URL will be:
https://yourdomain.com/puma-california-embossed-floral-womens-shoes/

So as you can see I will want to strip my category names from the product URL and keep it clean.

Why?

https://yourdomain.com/womens-shoes/puma/puma-california-embossed-floral-womens-shoes/

• To avoid repetitions of keywords
• To have a nicer structure
• Shorter URL

What is the best way to do it?

That really really depends on your categories and products structure.

For instance, if my product name was just California Embossed Floral Shoes, I would have used the following structure:

https://yourdomain.com/womens-shoes/puma/california-embosssed-floral

If you want my opinion for your URL structure, leave a comment below with your website URL and I will be glad to check and get back to you.

How to create SEO-friendly URLs in Magento 2.

Blogs

When talking about blog websites, the most important URLs to be optimized are the category pages and blog posts.

https:/yourwebsite.com/post-title/
If your website has a nice structure, you should definitely consider focusing on showing just the post title in the URLs.

But in some situations similar to the e-commerce use case scenario it will be better to include the category name in the blog post URL structure.

https:/yourwebsite.com/category-name/post-title/

Example: Fashion News Website, where your main topics(Women’s Fashion) are categories.

https:/yourwebsite.com/womens-fashion/top-5-dresses-for-summer-time

Next, I will show you how to change your Permalinks and make your SEO-friendly URLs for WordPress since it’s the most popular blogging platform.

In the Admin Section under Settings > Permalinks :

You can use some of the common settings or go for your own custom structure.

Company Websites

Usually simple websites with contact info and successful projects page.

If you were wondering how to make SEO-Friendly URLs for your company website, I would say:

• Keep them simple and short

https://yourdomain.com/about-us/
https://yourdomain.com/projects/
https://yourdomain.com/contact-us/