How to Create SEO-Friendly URLs

Did you know incorporating SEO in a URL is one of the most basic elements of online optimization? It seems simple enough.

Enter a few words into the URL slug, throw in a keyword or two, and you’re good. Right?

If only it were that easy.

In reality, there’s an entire science behind proper URL optimization.

But after tons of research and a lot of trial and error on my end, I’ve come up with what I think is a rock-solid formula. 

It covers all bases and aims to satisfy both search engine bots and improve the user experience.

Ready? Let’s get to it.

Key Takeaways

•  Incorporate relevant keywords in URLs to help search engines understand the content and improve ranking for those terms.
• Create clean, simple URLs that are easy to read and understand, enhancing user experience and click-through rates.
• Separate words with hyphens instead of underscores to ensure search engines correctly interpret the individual terms.
• Shorter URLs are more user-friendly, which means they may perform better in search rankings than long, complex ones.

Table of Contents

• Key Takeaways
• What Is an SEO-Friendly URL?
• Why Are SEO-Friendly URLs Important?
• SEO URL Best Practices
  • 1. Choose a Top Level Domain
  • 2. Opt for HTTPS
  • 3. Keep URLs Concise
  • 4. Prioritize Readability
  • 5. Use Hyphens, Not Underscores
  • 6. Use Lowercase Letters
  • 7. Use “Safe” Characters
  • 8. Target 1-2 Keywords
  • 9. Avoid Using More Than Two Folders
• FAQs
• Conclusion

What Is an SEO-Friendly URL?

An SEO-friendly URL gives search engines context and helps searchers understand the page’s topic. These URLs are concise and descriptive and often include keywords. 

Let’s say you’re a keen chef and have a blog about cooking. When someone looks for a recipe on Google, SEO-friendly URLs are a great way to enhance your visibility in the SERPs. Here’s a good example from the author and trained chef Jenn Segal:   

If you’re searching Google for ‘how to make scrambled eggs,’ this tells you right away what to expect if you click the link. 

Why Are SEO-Friendly URLs Important?

As I touched on above, an optimized URL helps search engines understand your page’s content. Different parts of URLs also get displayed in the SERPs as breadcrumbs, allowing searchers to understand whether a result will help them. Creating URLs with keywords and clear content details improves the user experience (an important Google ranking signal).

SEO URL Best Practices

Like any other digital marketing technique, when optimizing SEO URLs, you’ll want to apply some best practices to get the most from your efforts. 

Below, I talk you through my top tips to up your online URL game.

1. Choose a Top Level Domain

Let’s keep this simple. Using a top-level domain (TLD) is usually your best bet for SEO-friendly URLs.

That means it’s ideal to use a “.com” domain rather than “.biz,” “.pro,” “.tel,” etc.

Now, I’m not saying you’re doomed if you use anything other than “.com” for your domain, but it is the most popular top-level domain worldwide. And it’s what most searchers are likely to look for.

A TLD doesn’t directly impact rankings but user trust and overall experience can directly contribute to better performance.

And this is huge.

When people trust your domain, it can trickle down and positively impact your overall SEO.

2. Opt for HTTPS

Online security is a huge issue these days.

With cybercrime and identity theft on the rise, internet users want to know they’re using a secure connection.

For that reason, it’s better to use HTTPS rather than HTTP.

If you’re unfamiliar with the difference, HTTPS stands for “HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure,” which is the secure version of HTTP.

This simply means it encrypts data on a website, which heightens security significantly.

Here’s an illustration of the difference between HTTP and HTTPS.

Implementing HTTPS also makes for a more SEO-friendly URL, as Google announced back in 2014 that it was using HTTPS as a lightweight ranking signal.

If your site hasn’t yet received an SSL certificate, I suggest taking care of this ASAP. Meanwhile, here are some quick and easy steps to help you through the process:

• There are several companies you can choose from when buying an SSL certificate. One of the top providers is Namecheap.
• Choose the right SSL certificate: Options include Domain Validated (DV), Organization Validated (OV), and Extended Validation (EV). DV is usually enough for small businesses, while EV is best for financial transactions.
• Purchase your chosen SSL certificate.
• Generate a CSR: Generating a Certificate Signing Request from your hosting control panel is essential before you can activate your SSL. 
• Activate your SSL: Activate your SSL using the CSR code from the previous step. 
• Verify domain ownership: Choose a method to confirm you own the domain. There are a few ways to do this, so just pick the one that works best for you. 
• Install the SSL: Once the SSL is issued, you’ll need to install it on your web server. 
• Redirect HTTP to HTTPS: After installation, make sure to redirect all traffic from HTTP to HTTPS so visitors are using the secure version of your site.
• Test your SSL: Finally, test if your SSL certificates are working properly.  There are several free tools to help you verify your SSL certificate is installed correctly and trusted.

3. Keep URLs Concise

It’s pretty cut and dry: when it comes to URL length for SEO, less is more. There’s no need for formulations or calculations. It just comes down to the shorter, the better.

Why? Well, it’s mainly down to user experience. The less complicated a URL is, the easier it is for a searcher to find what they’re looking for. 

The ideal max length of a URL should be between 50 and 60 characters.

If you go much further (say, 80+ characters), your URL will be cut off, and online users can’t see it properly.

I personally try to shoot for around three to five words per URL because it’s simple and gives users a pretty clear idea of what a particular piece of content is all about.

Here are a couple of examples from NeilPatel.com. 

See what I mean?

I keep the number of words in these URLs to a minimum, but you can still get a sense of what you can expect by clicking on those links.

4. Prioritize Readability

Let me elaborate just a bit more on the importance of readability and why it’s essential to an SEO-friendly URL.

Say that someone links to one of your posts.

If it’s easily readable with “https://www.mydomain.com/how-to-structure-a-URL-for-SEO,” you should be good to go.

But, if your URLs look something like the image below, your readers may struggle to understand what’s going on and click elsewhere:

My point here is that simplicity and clarity are what you want to aim for when creating URLs.

For simplicity’s sake, you’ll also want to avoid stopwords like: 

• a
• an
• or
• but

The only exception is if adding a stop word to a URL will help it make more sense and enhance readability. Then, it’s logical to go ahead and include it.

5. Use Hyphens, Not Underscores

What’s the best choice between hyphens or underscores?

That’s a no-brainer. Always use hyphens.

Here’s advice straight from Google itself.

6. Use Lowercase Letters

Always stick with lowercase letters. Why?

Letter case doesn’t directly impact the SEO of a URL, but using uppercase letters can lead to redirects, 404 errors, duplicate content issues, and diluted link equity.

Here’s one take on lettercase from Jennifer Slegg of the SEMPost:

Google’s John Mueller previously said URLs are case-sensitive and explained that upper and lowercase matter. He advises consistency but adds that it’s usually not critical for a website.

7. Use “Safe” Characters

Here’s another point I need to make in crafting an SEO-friendly URL.

It involves using “safe” characters in your URL rather than “unsafe” characters.

The easiest way for me to explain the difference is to simply show you a graph from Perishable Press.

Unsafe characters can create issues for browsers like input validation failures, security issues, data corruption, encoding issues, and a degraded user experience, which you want to avoid.

8. Target 1-2 Keywords

Ah…keywords.

You should have known that this topic would surface at some point in this post.

What’s the best way to handle keywords when creating SEO friendly URLs?

Well, here’s my take on things.

You should definitely include keywords in your URL to help users and search engine bots understand what your page is about, and Ubersuggest is a keyword tool to help with this.

In the example below, the URL serves as the anchor text, so it provides context if your content is copied without including the anchor text. This can be helpful if you post on multiple platforms, but it is not the best practice for content directly on your website. 

This way, people can instantly tell what your content is about at a glance, regardless of where they find the link.

Even without anchor text, it’s good to go.

It takes the guesswork out and encourages people to click on your content.

But here’s the deal: Don’t shamelessly stuff keywords into your URL. One or two maximum is enough, and never repeat keywords. 

Repetition is a negative because it can make your URL look like spam. This could diminish your credibility in the eyes of search engine users.

Take a look at this example:

As you can see, it looks like keyword stuffing to have the keywords “canoe puppies” listed back to back between two folders.

9. Avoid Using More Than Two Folders

If you’re unsure what I mean by “folders,” they’re simply the slashes you see between text in a URL (like the / slashes between canoe-puppies in the image above).

Like most other aspects of optimizing SEO in your URL, it’s best to keep it simple with the number of folders you use in your URLs.

In other words, less is best.

Here are a couple of examples to clarify matters.

See?

Users can still tell what the content is about with the second restructured URL, but it contains fewer folders.

And if you really want to get specific in terms of the number of folders to use, stick with one or two.

This makes your URL way more visually appealing, and it’s easier for search engines to decipher the meaning.

FAQs

What are SEO-friendly URLs?

An SEO-friendly URL gives search engines context and makes it clear to users what the webpage is about. They’re short and descriptive and include a primary keyword.

How do you create SEO-friendly URLs?

By creating concise descriptions with relevant, primary keywords. Perform keyword research using a tool like Ubersuggest.

Should a URL include keywords?

Yes, you can use keywords in your URL. Just be careful not to overdo it, and avoid repetition. Ensure you use your primary keyword so the search engines and users can understand what the page is about.

How long can a URL be for SEO?

The recommended length for a URL is 55-60 characters. Any longer than that, and you risk your URL being cut off in the SERPs and impacting readability.

Are long URLs bad for SEO?

Your URL length can impact how it appears in search snippets, but page rank is not affected. Google’s John Mueller advises using a URL structure that is practical and sustainable over time. Keep the user experience and readability in mind when creating URLs, too. 

Conclusion

Creating an SEO-friendly URL can be tricky, as there are a few things you need to consider regarding best practices.

It starts with the more technical aspects, like choosing a top-level domain and getting an SSL certificate so users know your site is safe. Then, you have to think about human-readability, keywords, and search engines.

There’s a lot going on, but after reading this piece, you should know how to balance it out easily.

To break it down into its most straightforward form, you can improve your site’s structure for SEO by keeping your URLs short, simple, and readable, and including a keyword for clarity.You should be golden if you create URLs with these objectives in mind as part of your SEO checklist.