One of the SEO aspects that are frequently overlooked is the importance of using friendly URLs. However, its importance is key both for search engines and to facilitate being remembered by users. And it even influences the reliability of these for the web on which they browse. For these and other reasons it is important to use friendly URLs on your site. The URL is the specific address that is assigned to each of the resources available on the network, that is, to what we colloquially call pages of a web. Its purpose is that these can be located or identified and allow access to that resource or specific page to the visitor. We could say that a URL is each web address of a site that takes us to a specific publication. A URL is considered friendly when it is easy to understand, remember, and communicate. A friendly URL does not include a large number of signs or grouped letters that do not make words. Friendly URLs are readable and anyone looking at it can have a clear idea of what they will find in it.
A good example is: www.centurydigitalmarketing.com/post/the-main-advantages-of-using-friendly-urls
Main advantages of using friendly URLs
1. Improve a website's SEO
Friendly URLs improve the positioning of a website in search engines. Friendly URLs include some of the keywords related to the content of the page and with which you are interested in positioning this page.
2. Easy to recognize, remember and communicate
A friendly URL is easy to remember and can be passed on to someone else via voice without any problems. It is even possible that a person can try to reach another directly on the same web through it by modifying a single word and achieve it successfully.
3. This type of URLs are reliable for the user
Friendly URLs build trust in the user and invite click-through. They do not raise doubts about where they will lead. They are clear and transparent. In addition, they give a sense of order and the visitor can perceive the seriousness of the site, as well as feel more secure in it. If it is a URL seen in search engine results, for example, it will generate confidence to click to access the site.
4. Friendly URLs are prettier
Truth is that a long, confusing URL full of symbols or linked letters without semantic sense is not visually attractive. You can back off whoever you had in mind to share it on your blog, a forum or a social network. However, when it comes to a readable, understandable URL that clearly shows what type of content you will find if you click on it, the chances of it being shared increase.
Changing your current URLs to friendly URLs implies that you must change all the internal links on your site. Remember that you must redirect the current URLs to the friendly URL that corresponds to each of them through 301 redirects if you do not want to lose visits from links to the current ones. These may have been saved by users or shared by them either privately or in forums, blogs or social networks.
But how can we know which friendly URL structure is best for our website? There are no rigid rules in this regard. There are different opinions. Some say that it is better to avoid including dates but the use of this can be interesting for certain blogs. It is actually a personal decision. Of course, you can justify it by knowing the main advantages of each of them. This will make it easier for you to make the decision of which structure is appropriate for your website. Make sure to choose the desired URL format and apply it throughout your website. This way each new content page you create is hosted on a friendly URL. Use friendly URLs on your website and take advantage of all the benefits and advantages that this will bring to the SEO of your site. If you would like to set up a meeting to discuss your website’s SEO efforts let us know! Our team is ready to help!