Search Engine Optimization – URL Structure

Over the weekend I realized that I overlooked an important piece to the on-page optimization in our series last week on Search Engine Optimization – Back to the Basics.

The structure of your URL is just as important if not more so than your Title tag when it comes to your on-page content.  The thing you want to remember is to try and use the primary keywords in the naming of your page.  If you are optimizing a site that is already in place, you probably don’t need to worry about renaming the pages, but if you are adding new pages to your site you will want to keep this in mind.

If you are using a content management system or blog software for your site then you probably don’t need to worry about this either because most of them will use the title of your post as part of the URL.  And if you use your primary keywords in the title of your post you’re in pretty good shape.  However, you have to make sure and set it up correctly in order for it to work right.

Here’s an example of a poor URL:  www.yourdomain.com/?id=123.  ?id=123 is the name of the page in this instance.  It doesn’t tell the search engines anything about this page.

Here’s an example of a good URL: www.yourdomain.com/blue-widget-special.  blue-widget-special is the name of the page in this instance and it tells the search engines (and your human visitors) what to expect when they visit that page, a special on blue widgets.

I hope this series has been helpful.  If you have any questions please leave a comment below or get in touch with me.

To your success,
Ken Partain