How to customize URL structure to SEO requirements

Do you know that your URL contributes to sites ranking? And again, do you know the URL might be the sole reason why your site seems not to hit? The question is; which is the right URL structure? It is embarrassing to go about the entire process of site optimization correctly but miss the URL. Guess what, it is so hard to think it’s the URL with the problem. It is advised that, when you can’t get the problem, you should enlist the services of an SEO expert to do it. Assume having to pay an SEO specialist only for them to tell you it was the URL! You can avoid this by engaging an expert for the entire site optimization process.

How do you know that the “expert” you have contracted for the job knows what they are doing? First, the right URL should be straightforward, meaningful and lay emphasis on the right URL structure. Here are five strategies on how to achieve a URL structure that is SEO-friendly.

First, you need to consolidate the www and non-www domain versions. To do this, there are a number of practices but we will only discuss the most common here. Based on experience, the best way to consolidate these is through “301 redirects” by pointing one version to the other. The other strategy is by configuring the sites appropriately. This is done by setting the preferred version in Google webmaster tools. If you follow this, it is only applicable to Google, and it’s limited to root domains.

Second, you need to avoid using relative and dynamic URLs. To things clear, you can use any URL system, as search engines don’t have problems with any. However, there are some reasons that you might want to consider before making the decision. You can use letter URLs (static) or those will be numerical (dynamic). For static URLs, it is easy to add the keyword making users easily figure out what about the site. For some web developers, the use of a relative URL is dependent on the site content, when the content changes the URL becomes un-functional.

Third, you need to create an XML sitemap. This is different from the HTML sitemap. XML is created for machines while HTML is for human users. Are you wondering what XML sitemap is? In simple words, it is a list of the URLs pointing to your site that you submit to search engines. Why is this beneficial? It makes it easy for search spiders to find your site and it’s used as a reference when choosing canonical URLs.

Fourth, shut down all irrelevant pages with robots.txt. Why is this necessary? It is important to restrict your sensitive pages from being made public. For example, would you want the terms and conditions pages ranked? Obviously, no. it is meant for those who land on the site through other pages. The robots.txt files have the instructions for search robots to ignore these pages.

Finally, yet importantly, specify canonical URLs by use of special tags. To do this, you might need the services of an experienced SEO expert. But to give you a head start, this strategy helps to concentrate the SEO value of your URLs.

With the right SEO-friendly URL, your site will rank higher in SERPs.