What are friendly URLs and what should I pay attention to?
URLs are an essential part of any website. They allow users around the world to read interesting content and share it further. However, URLs are much more than a mere path through which we get to a particular blog post or product on a store. For it is an essential element that has a significant impact on SEO.
URL Construction
The URL architecture of a website should be well thought out. Because it will save us from the mess that may appear after the site is indexed. Therefore, it is essential to prepare URLs so that they are correct in terms of SEO. A website URL consists of the following elements:
- The name of the protocol – such as https or http
- Name of the service- www
- Domain – seofly
- Domain extension – e.g. pl, gov, mil, com
What length should URLs be?
The length of URLs is of paramount importance, as it serves an image function and influences their further sharing. In addition, the shorter the URL, the easier it is to remember or save. Therefore, the use of short URLs is recommended by Google. It is good practice to use long URLs for blog posts. This is because this is due to the title of the entry, which can be more or less extensive. It is worth limiting yourself here to a maximum of 150 characters.
Should the URL contain keywords?
The use of keywords in URLs is a desirable optimization measure. Nevertheless, here it is necessary to exercise moderation, which will prevent over-optimization of the URL. Therefore, a maximum of 2 keywords in a URL is optimal.
Should Polish characters be used in URLs?
Avoid using Polish characters in URLs. Although they will be changed to their equivalents when you create a new subpage on, for example, WordPress, it is worth paying attention to this issue. The same is true for letters of different sizes, which negatively affects the memory of such an address and its proper indexing. In the case of capital letters here, the exception is, among others, session IDs, which contain Polish characters, but they are not subject to indexing.
Language versions of the site, and URLs
When creating a website with several language versions, be sure to maintain an orderly URL structure. First of all, each sub-page in an additional language version of the site should contain a separate member, e.g. /en/ for the English language version. This will organize the architecture of information and addresses that are visited and collected by indexing robots. Here, too, beware of country-specific language characters.
Impact of Trailing Slash
Every website should beware of duplication. This applies to both content and URLs. In their case, however, the concept of trailing slash, which determines the final content of individual sub-page addresses, deserves a lot of attention. On the surface, the addresses https:/seofly.pl/contact and https://seofly.pl/kontakt/ look the same, but they are 2 separate addresses that point to the same content. Because the decisive element here is the / at the end of the URL or its absence. Pages ending in / at the end are treated as a directory, and not strictly as a subpage, so pay special attention to the correct use of slashes at the ends of URLs.
Summary – what are friendly URLs?
When talking about friendly URLs, it is worth keeping both search engines and users in mind. Friendly addresses are well interpreted by search engines and are easy to remember. The basic criterion is the readability of the URL and the above guidelines that are a determinant of the quality of addresses within a domain.
