When you do a search on Google, it is common to find in the results pages and articles whose URLs are not optimized and contain strange characters, numbers, etc. Both Google and users like friendly or semantic URLs better. Don’t know what this term means? Do you want to know how to apply it on your website? Keep reading!
What are friendly URLs?
When we talk about friendly URLsalso known as semantic URLs, we refer to those addresses What are they understandable by users and, as a consequence, easier to remember.
Let’s look at an example:
Friendly URL: https://www.comedera.com/receta-pollo-al-curry/
Unfriendly URL: https://www.directoalpaladar.com/recetas-de-carnes-y-aves/receta-de-pollo-al-curry-en-10-minutes
As you can see, the first URL is much shorter, simpler and easier. However, the second URL contains a large number of words and not all of them are descriptive or necessary, making it more difficult to remember.
Examples of friendly URLs vs unfriendly URLs
Example 1:
www.dominio.com/tres-maneras-combinar-jersey-camisa-acertar-pleno vs. www.domain.com/ways-to-combine-jersey-shirt
Example 2:
www.dominio.com/noticias/espana/elecciones-generales-2019-campana-electoral-sanchez-casado-rivera-iglesias-abascal-hoy-ultima-hora-directo_201911055dc12ac90cf282fef30204c9.html vs. www.dominio.com/noticias/espana/campana-electoral-elecciones-generales-2019-ultima-minute
Example 3:
dominio.com/blog/the-fifteen-most-successful-entrepreneurs-in-spain-2019/ vs. dominio.com/blog/entrepreneurs-successful-spain/
Characteristics of friendly URLs
- Descriptive: Friendly URLs are fundamentally characterized because they describe the content on the page, image or video.
- Short: URLs should not contain more than 4/5 words. The fewer terms, the easier it is for the user to remember. Do not go too brief, remember that they must describe the content!
- They contain keywords: It is common that within the URL, at least, the main keyword for which you want to position yourself when generating that article.
- They do not use brake words: Semantic URLs do not usually contain prepositions, conjunctions or numbers.
- Use of hyphens: URLs have historically separated words with hyphens and users are used to them. Using them will make it easier to read and understand.
Why use friendly URLs on a website?
You already know what a friendly URL is, but do you know what benefits and help using them on your website can give you?
1# SEO factor
Since the beginning of web positioning, URLs have always been a SEO factor, but have been losing importance over time. It is not a fundamental tag such as the
Even so, the URL is a tag that still has importance and is read by the spiders of the different search engines. This makes it important to optimize it and insert the keyword within the words that contain the URL.
As stated from:
Using a URL that includes keywords can improve your site’s search visibility, but URLs themselves generally don’t have a major impact on a page’s ability to rank.
2# Helps increase CTR
One of the main benefits of using friendly URLs is that they help improve CTR of the pages.
This is because the URL appears in the SERPs (search results) just below the SEO title and above the meta description. The user usually reads the title, the meta description and also the URL.
For this reason we must create semantic URLs that contain at least the main keyword and that the user can understand in a simple way. In this way we are optimizing and controlling the message 100% that the user sees in the search results (although Google does not always respect our indications).
3# Make it easy to get links
Another benefit of using friendly URLs is that reduce the difficulty of getting links naturally. In this way, a friendly URL can be used as anchor text, whether in forums, social networks or blogs.
It is necessary to mention that those platforms in which a link can be shared directly, that is, where the URL itself is the anchor text, it becomes vitally important to use semantic URLs. In these cases, using unoptimized URLs can deter users.
4 # Easier to be remembered
Lastly, using semantic URLs can help the user more easily remember the URL address. This way you can enter it directly into the browser and visit the web content.
This type of behavior is not usually normal, since not many users opt for this option, but if you use friendly URLs you make this process easier.
How to set friendly URLs in WordPress
If you have WordPress, creating friendly URLs is very easy. To do this you must follow the following steps:
Settings > Permalinks
The first thing you should do to change the URLs of your site is to access your wordpress desktop. Once there, you have to go to the sidebar on the left and click on Settings.
Once in settings, select the section of permalinks.
Permalinks > Types of URLs
plain url
This is the most basic option that we can find. It does not show anything more than the number that corresponds to the page.
Example: domain.com/?p=162/
As we see in the example, this URL is not friendly and therefore you should NOT select it.
URL with day and name
This second URL option is already closer to a friendly URL since it includes the name of the article. Of course, it also adds the date on which it was published.
Example: domain.com/2016/05/05/removal-of-predmore-from-frank-thomas-stonges-usonian-house/
We are not interested in this option either, since it contains the date of publication and that can make users understand that content is outdated even though it is not.
URL with month and name
This option is very similar to the previous one. The only difference is that instead of putting the full date, it only puts the month and year.
Example: domain.com/2016/05/removal-of-predmore-from-frank-thomas-stonges-usonian-house/
This option is also not ideal if we want to create friendly URLs.
numeric url
This is a very similar URL option to simple URLs. In this case, instead of displaying a page number, it displays /files/ plus the page ID.
Example: domain.com/files/162
Due to its form, this option is not interesting either.
Named URL of the entry
This option is one of the most chosen to create friendly URLs, since in its content they show the title that you have given to the article.
Example: domain.com/removal-of-predmore-from-frank-thomas-stonges-usonian-house/
This type of URL is ideal for generating semantic URLs.
Custom URL Structure
Finally, we have the option to create custom urls. This is ideal if you want to create a single directory for blog articles or if you are going to use a siled URL structure where content is categorized.
Example:
For a URL to be dominio.com/blog/illustration/removal-of-predmore-from-frank-thomas-stonges-usonian-house/, that is, it contains /blog/category/post name/ you must put the following:
From normal URL to friendly URL
Once you have the URL structure, you will see that it can still be done small optimizations What remove prepositions, numbers or conjunctions that all they do is increase the length of the URL.
For optimize a URL and make it friendly you must do the following:
- Go to the page/post you are going to publish or edit.
- Go to the Yoast SEO box.
- Click on edit snippet.
- Modify the URL and make it friendly.
- Post.
** If you modify a published URL you will have to make a .
Tips to optimize your URLs for SEO
👉 Include the target keyword
As with , it is always advisable to include the target keyword or one of its variants, whenever possible, in our URL.
👉 Easily describe the content of your page
A practice that should be carried out if we want optimize a URL for SEO is to describe very briefly to the user the content that is going to be found when accessing our page. In this way, navigation through our website will be more intuitive and logical for the user.
👉 Leave a “clean” text
We must leave a text free of strange symbols such as exclamations and question marks, as well as accents, the letter “ñ” or “ç”. In addition, we must avoid parameters as much as possible. It is important that the URL is as short as possible, so that it avoids the use of prepositions and conjunctions.
Also don’t include file extensions, such as index.html, index.php, etc. This information does not provide the user with anything and has no benefit at the SEO level.
👉 Use lowercase and hyphens
Although Google does not distinguish when it comes to positioning if you use uppercase or lowercase, we recommend that you always use the latter. This is so because the user finds it more friendly to read that font size.
To separate words, use the middle dash (-) instead of the underscore (_). Google interprets the middle hyphen as a space between the words, while the underscores are understood as complementary parts to them, which can negatively affect your SEO. We also recommend that you avoid strange symbols like (+).
👉 Use appropriate depth levels
Another issue to consider when optimize a URL for SEO are the depth levels of our website.
When thinking about the architecture of our site, we must try as far as possible not to exceed 3 levels of depth. This means that the user must be able to find the content they need through a maximum of 3 clicks from the home page.
Your crawl budget will also appreciate it, since the most important thing for the (GoogleBot) is to be able to easily find a page in the structure of our website. In this way, a page that is in deeper levels, it is possible that Google considers it less important than the others or that it may not even crawl due to the difficulty of accessing it.
In conclusion, friendly or semantic URLs are easy to generate and can benefit your website, since even if they are a minor factor, they still have some importance at the SEO level. In addition, they improve the ease with which users can remember your page.
And you, do you work with friendly URLs on your website? Do you think they help improve your SEO positioning?