The internal URL structure of your website also has a direct influence on your search engine rankings. A well planned URL structure and navigation plan for a website can be more helpful and user friendly, as well as Search Engine Friendly, instead of a website structure which you have not given enough thought.
Dynamic vs. Static URLs
Search Engines can easily follow web page URLs which are static and follow a defined path or directory structure. Website URLs which are dynamic are not easily crawled and indexed by the Search Engines, and can cause problems when the search engine spider crawls your site. In worst cases, they do not get indexed by the Search Engines, no matter how important the information is on the web page.
Here are examples of proper URL structure of a site and dynamic URLs which you should avoid:
Dynamic URLs
www.yoursitename.com
www.yoursitename.com/index.php?cat=1
www.yoursitename.com/index.php?cat=1&subcat=1
www.yoursitename.com/index.php?cat=1&subcat=2
www.yoursitename.com/index.php?cat=2
www.yoursitename.com/index.php?cat=2&subcat=1
www.yoursitename.com/index.php?cat=2&subcat=2
Static URLs
www.yoursitename.com
www.yoursitename.com/category1/
www.yoursitename.com/category1/sub-category1/
www.yoursitename.com/category1/sub-category2/
www.yoursitename.com/category2/
www.yoursitename.com/category2/sub-category1/
www.yoursitename.com/category2/sub-category2/
The use of ? and & in the URL structure can cause problems for both the search engine spiders as well as for the users, as it can be confusing and not easily remembered. Moreover, category=1 and sub-category=2 do not give an idea to the user of what the web page is about. For Search Engine Spiders, dynamic URLs cause indexing problems, and pages with lots of variables being passed in the URL are at times ignored by the Search Engines and not indexed at all.
With the navigation plan of Static URLs, a proper directory structure is being followed, with the first level categories being displayed a level below the main page of the site, and further sub-categories being displayed at the second level. Such a URL structure is easily followed and indexed by the Search Engine Spiders. It is also easy to remember and useful for the readers. Moreover, the use of keywords as category names in the URLs of the site gives an idea to the viewer as to what the page is about. Also, a user will be more inclined to click on the Static URLs instead of the Dynamic URLs, if they both come up in the Search Engine Ranking Pages (SERPs).
Tips for Website URL Structure
You should keep a few things in mind when planning the navigation structure for your website. These points are given below:
- Follow static URLs for your website pages instead of dynamic URLs
- Follow a directory structure with appropriate levels of pages, the most important ones being on the first level
- Do not go to more than 4 levels deep in your directory structure
- Do not overstuff your URLs with keywords
- Use Mod Rewrite to convert dynamic URLs to Static URLs for your website
- Avoid repeating a keyword in the URLs multiple times. This is explained with the help of an example below
- Use hyphens instead of underscores to separate keywords in a URL structure
- Do not use very long file names or directory names for your website pages
- Avoid using special characters in website URLs
Avoid Repeating Keywords in the URLs
When planning your navigation structure for a website, do not repeat a keyword again and again, as it will be considered keyword stuffing by most search engines. This is explained with the help of an example:
www.yourhotels.com
www.yourhotels.com/dublin/
www.yourhotels.com/dublin/dublin-hotels/
www.yourhotels.com/dublin/dublin-hotels/cheap-hotels-in-dublin/
www.yourhotels.com/dublin/dublin-hotels/luxury-hotels-in-dublin/
www.yourhotels.com
www.yourhotels.com/dublin/
www.yourhotels.com/dublin/dublin-hotels/
www.yourhotels.com/dublin/dublin-hotels/cheap-hotels-in-dublin/
www.yourhotels.com/dublin/dublin-hotels/luxury-hotels-in-dublin/
As you can see with the above examples, the keywords “Dublin” and “hotels” are repeated again and again, causing the URL to be lengthy and keyword stuffed. This problem can be solved by using a well planned and better navigation structure for the website. Example URLs which could be implemented can be the following:
www.yourhotels.com
www.yourhotels.com/dublin/hotels/cheap-hotel/
www.yourhotels.com/dublin/hotels/luxury-hotel/
www.yourhotels.com/dublin/apartments/cheap-apartment/
www.yourhotels.com/dublin/apartments/luxury-apartment/
With the proposed plan, the length of the URLs has reduced considerably and the repeated keywords have also been removed. It is making the same logical sense as the previous examples and is also using keyword variations, by using singular and plural keywords in the URLs.
Keywords in URLs
Search Engines give importance to keywords used in the URL if a web page, both in the domain name as well as in the directory structure. They are also identified and highlighted by making them bold when ever a Search Engine query is carried out and the results are displayed.
2 Responses to “SEO Friendly Website URL Structure”
Post A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
August 18th, 2008 at 9:19 am
[…] URLs with question marks (?) and other command punctuations such as & and %. They are not search engine friendly URLs and they affect human and robot traffic as they are hard to locate and […]
May 3rd, 2009 at 6:30 am
I have been searching for this information and finally found it. Thanks!