Using keywords in urls
Many SEOs believe that the influence of keyword-rich URLs on
rankings is a thing of the past. While it may or may not be true, you are not
losing anything when you include keywords in your URLs. So, at the chance that
it still works, we do recommend building your URLs around your main keywords.
Not to mention that a keyword-rich URL may actually improve your
click-through rate in search results. URLs are a part of your snippet, and
having it show another keyword will make it appear more relevant.
Think ahead
Avoid including information that may change in the future. Let’s
say you publish an article called Top
10 Gravel Bikes to Buy in 2020 and your URL ends with /10-gravel-bikes-2020. A year goes by,
the article ranks very well, and you want to update it to Top 12 Gravel Bikes to Buy in 2021.
Except you can’t because your URL will forever give you away:
Be consistent with urls
Make sure that all of your URLs follow the same formatting
rules. This way you will avoid creating duplicate pages and messing up your
website structure. Some of the popular URL formatting rules include sticking to
lower case letters, using slashes to separate folders, and using dashes to
separate words.
Mind the length
Shorter URLs are, generally speaking, preferable. You don't need to take this to the extreme — it is normally ok for URLs to be up to 50-60 characters long. But if you have URLs pushing 100+ characters, there's probably an opportunity to rewrite them and make them more appealing.
If you're building your URLs based on the title of your post, think of cutting down on stop words (and, but, a, the, and others) to make them shorter and more readable. Also, try to avoid an excessive number of folders — use your folder structure to show the hierarchy of your content.
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