SHOMEDIAA clear web address helps readers judge what a page contains before they open it and helps search engines understand your site’s structure. This guide explains how to choose words for URLs, keep addresses concise, and organize sections without unnecessary complexity.
Why URLs matter for SEO
Search engines consider a page’s address alongside its title tag, link anchor text, and content. A descriptive URL provides additional context about the subject of the page.
The URL alongside other elements that help identify a page’s topic.
Google’s SEO Starter Guide also covers page addresses. The basic principle is straightforward: use a logical structure and words that people can understand.
An excerpt from Google’s guidance on URL structure.
Make page addresses easy to understand
Include a relevant keyword
Use the page’s primary keyword in the URL when it naturally describes the subject. The address should give visitors a useful indication of what they will find.
A keyword in the address indicates the page’s subject.
For example, a collection of more than 150 SEO tools can use a short address containing seo-tools. The phrase communicates the topic without repeating the entire headline.
Backlinko’s collection of SEO tools.
example.com/seo-tools
Choose words related to your content and site structure. These are more useful for navigation than a random sequence of letters and numbers.
Separate words with hyphens
When an address contains several words, place hyphens between them. For a page about an SEO site audit, for example, use:
example.com/tools/seo-site-audit
Hyphens separate words in a URL.
Hyphens distinguish the individual words seo, site, and audit. The combined version seositeaudit is harder to read. Google recommends hyphens rather than underscores; avoid spaces in the address as well.
Google’s recommendation to use hyphens instead of underscores.
Keep URLs short without losing meaning
Remove unnecessary technical elements and words that do not describe the page. A long technical string makes an address harder to read and can obscure its main subject.
An address containing unnecessary technical elements.
In this example, baseball appears alongside default and redirect. A reader has to work out which part actually describes the content.
Technical terms make the address harder to read.
Compare that address with a shorter version that retains only the page’s topic:
A shorter URL for a page about baseball.
The subject is immediately clear in the shorter address.
Backlinko’s ranking factors study found an association between shorter URLs and higher Google positions. This is a correlation: it does not establish that shortening an address alone will improve rankings.
URL length and ranking position in Backlinko’s study.
The overall structure matters for crawling, too. Excessive parameters can generate many addresses with identical content and waste crawler resources. A short URL is useful above all when it remains descriptive and avoids unnecessary versions of the same page.
Google documentation on problems caused by complex URLs.
A Brafton study also reported a relationship between shorter links and more social shares. The finding supports a practical recommendation: make addresses easy to read and share.
Brafton’s study on shorter links and social sharing.
Make links understandable before the click
Visitors use an address to judge where a link will take them. Familiar words and a recognizable subject make that decision easier. Technical identifiers alone provide little help.
A descriptive address helps readers assess a search result.
A technical identifier gives little indication of the topic.
The same principle applies to social networks and communities such as Reddit. A tidy link is easier to understand and pass along. A concise address with a suitable keyword usually achieves this without any special tricks.
A comparison of links shared on social media.
Use lowercase letters
Letter case can matter in a URL’s path. On some servers, uppercase and lowercase versions lead to different pages, or one version returns an error.
Different server responses for uppercase and lowercase paths.
To avoid confusion, follow a consistent format and use lowercase letters in new addresses.
Leave out unnecessary dates
Some content management systems can automatically include the publication year, month, and day in an address. This structure is often inconvenient for content that you plan to update regularly.
An address containing the publication year, month, and day.
Dates make URLs longer. In this example, removing the 05/21/2020/ segment eliminates 11 characters while keeping the topic intact.
The date adds characters to the URL.
The same address after removing the date.
A date can also conflict with updated content. Imagine a list of the best iPhone apps for 2019. If you update it in January 2020, the old year remains in the address.
A historical example of an apps list for 2019.
The old year remains in the URL after the content is updated.
A 301 redirect can send visitors to a new URL, but changing the address every time you update the content is inconvenient. For a guide that will be refreshed over time, choose wording without a date from the outset.
Build a logical site structure
Use folders to support navigation
Your address structure should help visitors understand which section they are in. Topic-based folders group related pages and make the site’s organization clearer.
For example, the Backlinko YouTube Marketing Hub described in the original example contained 32 pages across five categories.
The YouTube Marketing Hub landing page.
Resources organized into five categories.
The main section can use this address:
example.com/hub/youtube
A specific tutorial within it can use:
example.com/hub/youtube/create-channel
The /hub segment identifies the broader section, youtube narrows the subject, and create-channel identifies the individual resource. Add folder levels only when they genuinely help navigation.
PetSmart provides another example. In the original analysis, its catalog of more than 85,000 pages followed a Pet → Category → Subcategory → Product structure.
PetSmart as an example of a consistently structured catalog.
A product address reflects this sequence through /dog/food/dry-food/ followed by the name of the specific food. Here, the longer product name serves a clear purpose: it identifies the exact item a visitor will open.
Use HTTPS
The protocol is part of a URL, although its main purpose concerns security. HTTPS encrypts the connection between the browser and the site and should be the standard choice when publishing pages.
A Wired article about HTTPS adoption.
Google announced HTTPS as a ranking signal in 2014. This is an additional reason to use a secure connection, although it does not replace useful content or the other elements of SEO.
An excerpt from Google’s HTTPS ranking signal announcement.
Choose URLs that work through future updates
Avoid copying the entire post title
Automatically turning an article’s title into its URL often produces an unnecessarily long string. It also ties the address to a particular wording or content format.
A URL that repeats the entire article title.
For example, a guest blogging guide may eventually become a collection of techniques or a case study. If its address contains the-definitive-guide-to-guest-blogging, it will fit the revised content less well.
The main keyword and one or two useful modifiers are usually enough. An article about learning SEO could use learn-seo or, if it really helps readers grasp the basics quickly, learn-seo-fast.
An SEO learning resource focused on understanding the basics quickly.
example.com/learn-seo-fast
Any modifier should accurately describe the page’s value and remain relevant after updates.
Keep URL parameters under control
Dynamic parameters support filters, analytics, and other functions. UTM tags, for instance, help track campaign visits:
Unnecessary parameters make links longer, however. If several versions of an address are indexed with the same content, they create duplicates and can consume crawler resources.
A historical search result containing UTM parameters.
Long parameter strings are also harder to read, and the displayed link may be truncated. Use a clean address for the main version of a page. Add parameters where they serve a purpose and make sure tagged versions do not create unnecessary duplicates.
An example of how addresses appear in search results.
Choose subfolders or subdomains to suit the task
A subfolder such as example.com/seo is often convenient for a section closely connected to the main site. A subdomain such as seo.example.com allows you to organize that section separately.
A diagram showing the main domain and a subdomain separately.
A diagram showing a section within a main-site subfolder.
Google does not prefer either option for indexing or ranking. Choose the structure that is easier to maintain and connect with the rest of your site.
The original guide includes a HotPads example: organic traffic increased after its blog moved from a subdomain to /blog. This is the result of one project, rather than a guarantee that every similar move will produce the same outcome.
The HotPads example showing traffic growth after the blog move.
Review every address before publishing
A useful URL describes the subject clearly, separates words with hyphens, and fits the site’s structure. Leave out unnecessary dates, full headlines, and redundant parameters. This makes content easier to update and sections easier to navigate.
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