Something that all SEOs should know is the importance of having well-optimized URL slugs. This brings benefits for both user experience and search engine optimization. It is well known that search engines take many factors into account in the process, and URLs are one of the most important. This is because of the function they have on web pages.
In this article, you will see all the information you need to understand how important URL slugs are. These have a function quite similar to HTML tags, describing the web page. Which makes it easy for search engines and future users who want to access that website. With this, you realize how important it is to have a well-structured and attractive URL slug. That is why, if you are an SEO who wants to create a URL, this article is the best for you.
- Do you know what is an URL SEO friendly?
- Step-by-step guide on how to write a slug
- Learn what are the URL slug best practices for your website
- How can DigitizenGrow SEO help you in the creation of your URL slug website?
1. Do you know what is an URL SEO friendly?
The URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. In summary, a URL is an address that a web page has. For servers and computers to communicate with each other, they rely on a language. This language is made up of letters and numbers, which are known as the IP address.
Devices connected to the internet will have an IP address that will be unique. In this way, even mobile devices have their IP address. However, these are difficult to remember, and trying to remember this string would require great memory skills. For this reason, domain names were created so that IP addresses can be masked into something more memorable.
In this way, domain names were created to act as memorable nicknames for IP addresses. Consequently, a URL is responsible for incorporating the domain name and more detailed information. Thanks to this, they can create a web address that is complete and that allows the user to locate a specific resource throughout the web.
In summary, we can say that a URL is a set of addresses and that all web pages have a unique URL.
1.1 Importance of optimizing a URL
Defined a URL we must analyze because optimizing it is important to optimize search engines. For this reason, along with your content and your title tag, search engines use your page’s URL. In this way, they seek to understand what your page is about.
You even found that Google plays up the importance of SEO-friendly URLs in their documentation. For this reason, if you want to rank you will need to learn how to build SEO-friendly URLs. However, Google SEO tools can help you optimize your page.
1.2 Anatomy of a URL
These consist of different parts like protocol, domain, subdomain, top-level domain, and subfolder. Also, we can find the parameters and the slug. These are elements that play an important role in SEO, such as Organic SEO. In this way, URL slugs are arguably the most important and the least difficult to affect.
A compatible SEO URL slug will be able to meet all the needs of search engines and search engines. Therefore, these SEO-optimized URL slugs are generally short, easy to read, and rich in keywords and LSI keywords.
2. Step-by-step guide on how to write a slug
When creating SEO slugs, people often make the mistake of choosing a few words to represent the post or page, and then making them your slug. To make your slug readable and user-friendly, a slug that reads like gibberish is best. If you want to write good URL-length SEO with more traffic and higher rankings in the SERP you just have to follow the next 9 steps.
2.1 Match the URL with the title to increase the relevance
To have a great URL slug it must accurately represent the content of the website. Thus, when users view the URL, they acquire a specific idea of what they will read on the destination page. That is, the page meets the expectations of consumers. However, it is important to note that they should not be the same, but they should be in tune.
2.2 Remove unwieldy characters from your URL slug
When creating a URL, you should avoid using unusual characters. These can break some browsers and, in turn, block crawlers from accessing your website. Also, URLs with this feature become difficult to read; therefore, writing them down and remembering them becomes impractical. In summary, all punctuation marks and unsafe characters should be removed, except hyphens and underscores.
2.3 Completely remove numbers in the URL
When numbers are placed in URLs it can be problematic. The main reason is that it makes it difficult to update the content if necessary. It is very simple, that the SEO can forget to update the number in the URL when making changes to the content of the page. Therefore, a mismatch is generated.
To avoid this problem, it is best to omit the numbers altogether. Thus when you make changes to the post or page you will not have to update the URL slug. When you add dates, the same effect occurs.
2.3.1 Why should not dates be placed in URL slugs?
If you add dates to URLs, there are two main problems you can run into. The first is that, maybe the content of your website. The second is that they add a very long length to URLs, which is not very well seen.
2.4 Remove cruft from your URL
The most important thing to keep in mind is that URL slugs should be short and sweet. There are two main reasons for this; The first is that long URLs generally crash search results. The second is that long URLs confuse search engines and Google.
2.5 Add keyword modifiers
Something very useful that you can add to your URL slugs is modifiers. Modifiers are known as phrases or words that provide additional information to the URL.
2.6 Put only lowercase letters in your URL
This cannot be considered an obligation because most modern web servers are case-sensitive. However, not everyone can do so, and to avoid problems, it is best to only use upper case. Like everything that follows the domain in a URL, it is case-sensitive; you run the risk of the 404 error page appearing on the screen due to confusion between the two.
2.7 Add hyphens to URL spaces
When URLs contain spaces in browsers, that blank area is usually replaced as percent characters. This makes the URLs difficult to read. Therefore, it is best to place the hyphen or underscore in the white spaces.
2.8 End slug URLs with a forward slash
The last step is that the URL slugs have a forward slash (/) at the end. Generally, when this character is not part of URLs it often feels incomplete. Users may even wonder if the URL is complete or not. Also, although adding the forward slash does not provide additional information to search engines, it does help with search optimization.
2.9 Make the URL attractive to enter and share
By following all the steps above, the URL being created is short and specific. Also, it is in tune with the title and the main target keyword. When users view the URL in search engines, they will not doubt that the website delivers what it promises. But, it can still be more enjoyable for users to click and share. One of the recommendations is that in case you need it, you can add conjunctions or pluralization. That way, your URL will probably be more readable.
3. Learn what are the URL slug best practices for your website
Having optimized our URL slug, we need to tackle the rest of the URL. Next, you will look at the best practices for SEO-friendly URLs.
3.1 You must opt for the HTTP protocol
HTTPS will act as a tunnel that is secure by encrypting data sent between the visitor’s browser and any web server. Furthermore, we found that Google is an advocate for a safer web.
Since 2014, HTTPs have been used as part of the classification algorithm. In addition, in 2018 Google Chrome began to warn users when websites were not encrypted with SSL. In this way, those websites that are protected with HTTPS gain an advantage in the SERPS competitor ranking.
3.2 You will need to choose a radio domain name
For the years 2000-2009, having a domain name with keywords meant having a good ranking advantage. However, today this is not the case. Since the EMD update was carried out in 2012, the benefits to keyword domains have been minimized.
There may be a small advantage to domains with keywords in them. However, it will give more importance to having a domain name that is unique and memorable or rather a radio domain. In this way, having a memorable domain name will allow you to be recognized by more users.
3.3 You will need to choose a suitable top-level domain
You found that the strongest signal for the geography you’re going to serve is your top-level domain or TLD. Country code top-level domains, or ccTLDs, tell Google that you provide services to a specific country. On the other hand, a generic top-level domain just indicates that your audience is global.
If you have a local company and it will always be local, you must choose the ccTLD of your country. However, if your business will target customers around the world or plan to do so, you’ll need to go with a generic top-level domain.
3.4 Try to stay away from subdomains if possible
These are useful if you want to segment your website based on functionality or install a second CMS; which will be like a member forum or helpdesk. Therefore, for all other cases, you should proceed with great caution.
Search engines put more effort into ranking different subdomains. However, this is not the case because Google views subdomains as separate websites. This is also due to the distribution of the links.
3.5 Make sparing use of URL subfolders
Using URL subfolders to help you organize your content will make it easier for users to understand where a site is located. In addition, they also help search engines by organizing content into topical silos that they can easily categorize and understand.
When your website only deals with one central topic, you won’t need subfolders. However, if your page covers many different topics, it can help Google and users make sense of these pages. All of this is done by using an organized URL structure.
Having many folders can make it appear that a page is not important because it is in the depths of your website. For this reason, it is advisable to keep subfolders to a maximum of three.
4. How can DigitizenGrow SEO help you in the creation of your URL slug website?
You should know that creating a web page, to get your business on Google is not an easy task. Many things have to be taken into account if you want to be successful in this task. For instance, the creation of a URL slug. One recommendation is that you hire a company that offers good SEO services. The best one you can find in Dubai is DigitizenGrow. There are two ways to get in touch with our advisors. The first is via telephone at +971 43 316 688. The second is via email at contact@digitizengrow.com.
