The power of friendly URLs: improve your SEO and user experience

A friendly URL is a web address designed to be easy to read and remember for both users and search engines. These URLs are usually short, descriptive and free of complex parameters or non-alphabetic characters. Creating friendly URLs is a common practice in search engine optimization (SEO) because it improves website usability, user experience and search ranking.

Features of a friendly URL

1. Brevity: They are short and to the point.
2. Descriptive: Include keywords that describe the content of the page.
3. Characters: They are short and to the point.
4. Easy to Read: Composed of complete words or recognizable terms.
5. Logical Structure: Maintain a hierarchy and structure that reflects the organization of the site.
6. Use of Hyphens: They use hyphens to separate words instead of underscores or coded spaces.
7. Avoid Complex Parameters: Do not include special characters or session IDs.
8. Consistency: Maintain uniform formatting throughout the entire website.

What is NOT a friendly url

1. Special characters:.

• Symbols such as #, ?, &, %, +, =, etc.
• Tildes (á, é, í, ó, ú), umlauts (ü), and other accented characters.
• Whitespaces.

2. Unnecessary parameters:

• Variables with no meaning for the user.
• Session or tracking ID.
• Any information that is not essential to describe the content of the page.

3. Capitalization: .

• URLs should be in lowercase to facilitate reading and comparison.

4. Underscores:

• Use underscores.
• It is recommended to use hyphens (-) instead of underscores (_) to separate words.

5. Random numbers:

• Should be avoided unless they are part of a logical sequence or have a specific meaning for the page content.
• Random numbers should be avoided unless they are part of a logical sequence or have a specific meaning for the page content.

6. Irrelevant words:

• Do not include words that are not relevant to the content of the page, such as “index”, “home”, “default”, etc.

7. Excessive length:

• URLs should be as short as possible, without sacrificing clarity and description of the content.

Benefits of friendly URLs

• Improves the User Experience: They make it easier to remember and type the address of a web page.
• Search Engine Optimization: They help to improve search engine ranking by being more descriptive and containing relevant keywords.
• Search Engine Optimization: They help to improve search engine ranking by being more descriptive and containing relevant keywords.
• Better Sharing: They are more attractive to be shared on social networks or in plain text, since the user can anticipate the content of the page just by reading the URL.

Examples of URLs

• Not Friendly: http://www.ejemplo.com/index.php?page=article&id=123
• Friendly: http://www.ejemplo.com/articulos/como-crear-urls-amigables

Do I need to change all the URLs on my website to make them friendly?

It is not necessary to change all URLs right away, especially if you have a large website. It is more important to prioritize the pages with the most traffic or those that you expect to attract the most visits through organic search. Start by optimizing the URLs of these pages and then gradually move on to the rest of the site, taking into account the importance and relevance of each page.

Changing an unfriendly URL: steps to follow

If you have detected that your website has unfriendly URLs, changing them is a decision that will bring you benefits in terms of SEO and user experience. Here are the steps to follow to make this change:

1. Identify unfriendly URLs: 2.

• Check your website: Analyze the URLs of your main pages, blog posts, products, categories, etc.
• Use online tools: There are tools that help you detect unfriendly URLs on your website. Some options are:
  • https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/
  • SEMrush: https://www.semrush.com/
  • Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com/

2. Define the new URL structure:.

• Choose keywords: Incorporate keywords relevant to the content of each page in the URL.
• Create a logical structure: Organize URLs in a hierarchical and easy-to-understand manner.
• Be concise: Keep URLs as short as possible without sacrificing clarity.

3. Implement the new structure:.

• Modify the URLs in your CMS: If you use a content management system such as WordPress or Drupal, you can modify the URLs directly in the interface.
• Redirect old URLs: It is essential to create 301 redirects from old URLs to new ones to avoid 404 errors and loss of SEO positioning. You can do this using .htaccess files or specific plugins of your CMS.

4. Update internal and external links:.

• Check internal links: Find and update all internal links pointing to old URLs.
• Notify websites linking to your content: If other websites link to your pages with old URLs, notify them of the new URLs so they can update their links.

5. Monitor the process:

• Monitor for 404 errors: Make sure that no 404 errors are generated after the redirect.
• Check SEO rankings: Monitor the search engine rankings of your pages to ensure that they are not negatively affected by the URL change.

Conclusion

Adopting friendly URLs is not only an essential strategy for improving the user experience and search engine visibility of your website, but it is also a critical step towards building a stronger and more accessible digital presence. As you work on optimizing your URLs, remember that this is only one aspect of a broader and more complex SEO strategy. For those using WordPress, an invaluable tool in this process is the use of SEO plugins, which can simplify and automate many aspects of your site’s optimization. We invite you to explore the “5 best SEO plugins for WordPress” on ModularDS, where you’ll find resources to help you take your SEO to the next level, including improvements in friendly URL management. Remember, the road to effective SEO is ongoing and constantly evolving; staying informed and adapting to best practices is key to online success. In the end, the effort spent creating and maintaining friendly URLs translates into a stronger, more user-friendly and better ranked site, which is critical in today’s competitive digital world.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you change a friendly URL after it has been published? What are the implications?

Changing a URL after it has been published is possible, but it must be done carefully to avoid losing web traffic and search rankings. If you change a URL, it is crucial to implement a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one to inform search engines about the change and ensure that inbound links and SEO value are transferred correctly to the new address.

How do friendly URLs affect the user experience?

Friendly URLs significantly improve the user experience by making web page addresses easy to understand and remember. This is particularly useful when users want to share the link with others or enter the URL manually. A clear and descriptive URL can give users a good idea of the page’s content before they click on the link, which improves site navigability and satisfaction.

How can I ensure that my friendly URLs remain consistent over time?

To maintain consistency in your friendly URLs, it is advisable to establish a clear naming convention from the beginning. Define rules on how to use keywords, hyphens, and URL structure that reflect the hierarchy of your site’s content. Document these rules and make sure that everyone responsible for publishing content on your site is informed and follows them. Using a CMS that makes it easy to create friendly URLs automatically can also help maintain consistency.