Six Easy Steps to Convert web URLs to SEO Friendly URLs, and make your blogs more visible in Search Engines. Download PDF version and share it with your friends.

1. SEO Best
Practices
for URLs

2. What is URL?
• URL (Uniform Resource Locator) allows
web users to access the
webpage, documents, or any other
resources hosted in your server
• It is important that you structure your
web urls for your visitors and Bots

3. 6 Best Practices

4. 1. Use Hyphen
• Google in its webmasters blog recommends
the use of hyphens.
• For example http://www.example.com/home-
insurance is much better than
http://www.example.com/homeinsurance.
• Using hyphens to separate words make it
much more readable for visitors too.

5. 2. Static over Dynamic URLS
• A Common Problem in CMS (Content
Management System) is the generation of
dynamic urls.
• Make use of plugins to convert non-readable
dynamic urls to static easy to understand urls.
• Plugins Not Available: Use 301 redirects on
the dynamic urls to readable urls.

6. 3. Session Ids and URL
Parameters
• Session ids and URL parameters are inevitable for sites
with search and sort features
• Exclude such urls by using robot.txt
www.example.com/search?id=132
www.example.com/search?id=132&sort=asc
• In Robot.txt use the following entry:
User Agent: *
Disallow: /search*

7. 4. Mind the Length
• Maximum URL allowed by Internet Explorer is
2,083 characters.
• Stick to 3-5 words in your URL.
• Divide Pages to category and sub-category
Pages

8. 5. Keyword in URLs
• Use of keywords in the initial part of the URL
can improve the relevance of your webpage
and improve click through rate in SERP.
• For Category Page:
www.example.com/category
• For Sub-Category Page
www.example.com/category/sub-category

9. • For the actual page use the following variations:
www.example.com/keyword1-sub-category-
category
www.example.com/keyword1-category-sub-
category
• For pages that have long keywords, avoid
categories and sub-categories altogether
www.example.com/keywordWord1-
keywordWord2-keywordWord3
www.example.com/keyPhrase-with-three-words

10. 6. Case Consistency
• Avoid ALL CAPs in your URL
www.example.com/BEST-OFFER
• If you are going to use First Letter Caps for all
categories and sub-category pages, stick with
it. Don’t change after 100 pages.
www.example.com/Category
www.example.com/Category/Sub-category
• Use of lower case in URL keywords has been
found effective. Not for SEO but to improve
click through rates in SERPs

11. ByteFive Internet Marketing
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