How to structure your blog URL to rank high on search engines?

The regular updates play a very important role in offering higher ranking of your website on major search engines. One of the easiest and perhaps the most effective way of updating your website is to publish blogs on a regular basis. The regular publishing of blogs not only attracts the higher SEO ranking but also increases the user engagement. Most of the websites owners invest great care and attention while writing blog content. However, apart from the content structure the URL of the blog also plays a major role in SEO ranking of your blog. Here are a few best practices to follow when structuring the URL of your blog in order to rank high on the search engine pages:

Relevance

User satisfaction is the topmost priority of any search engine and that can be achieved only by offering the most relevant search results. Now the question arises “how can a reader determine if your blog post is relevant to his search? The very first thing that attracts user’s attention on a search results page is the URL of your blog. Hence, an easily readable URL can facilitate a user to get an exact idea of your blog article. That increases the possibility of clicking on your link and engaging with your content.

The more sophisticated techniques used by the modern search engines allow them to analyze the user data signals (engagement VS Non-engagement) to determine the ranking of your blog. Relevant URLs attract more engagement/clicks and leverage your search engine ranking.

Example:

Suppose you have written an excellent blog on ranking high on Google Search Results. A user searches for the similar keyword and your blog appeared on the first page. Let us see how the different URLs of your blog article can determine user behaviour:

· URL1: http://cdn.thedomain.cc/5frntl/i8xhi=ler2ni/s#llm=ep (Most possibly no sane user would click such vague, irrelevant URL)

· URL 2: http://thedomain.com/top-10-ways-to-rank-top-on-google (It exactly explains what to expect from content and prompts users to click)

Use appropriate keywords

Though keyword stuffing can hurl your blog down several notches, the sensible and justifiable use of keywords is very important while writing the URL. In fact, keywords are the preferred words or phrases used by the net users for searching. So, avoid complicated words or convoluted phrases in your URLs as that would not align with the preferred search words/phrases of audience. Keep it simple and use main keywords. Anchor text is another vital element affecting your ranking. In the absence of anchor text in a link the URL acts as the one and an URL with keyword leverages the SEO benefits. If the URL contains the keyword the users are more likely to click it.

Example

· URL 1: http://thedomain.com/how-can-I-leverage-my-site-visibility-on-google (Most possibly the audience will not read beyond “Leverage”- Oh! Too much of grammar! )

· URL 2: http://thedomain.com/top-10-ways-to-rank-top-on-google (Let me click that’s what I exactly want)

Wise use of categories

The use of categories and sub-categories can also help your blog URL to look streamlined and properly explained but then you must remember that too much explanation is not always a good thing. Especially if your audience is browsing your URL while on the go, s/he will not be patient enough to wade through the entire maze of categories, sub-categories, etc. So, it is important to ensure that inclusion of categories in your URL should help and not confuse your audience. Let us see 3 examples below:

www.myblog.com/categories/seo/URL-strategies/blogs/how-to-structure-your-blog-URL.html (Does audience really need to know “that much” of details? Really?)

www.myblog.com/categories/seo/blogs/how-to-structure-your-blog-URL.html (That looks quite better!)

www.myblog.com/categories/seo/ how-to-structure-your-blog-URL.html (That’s the most ideal URL- Short simple yet wholesome!)

Symmetrical approach

Harmonizing related things in a sensible manner helps in creating symmetry. URL structuring is not a different thing here. So aligning the URL with the blog title, page title and visible headline can help the audience to experience a sense of symmetry. In fact, the visible title, Meta description and URL form a vertical series and if you have used matching text/words/phrases the series will give a symmetrical look. And as the human eyes love symmetry you will get more positive response from the users. Of course, there is a greater reason to believe that- the matching text offers a more sensible, wholesome picture to the audience and thus attracts more clicks/engagement.

Omit unnecessary stop words

There is absolutely no harm in omitting some of the stop words while writing your URL. No one would penalize you if the URL does not contain an article (a, an or the) or a preposition. However, if your URL becomes a bit too long or unreadable because of many stop words, it may affect the appeal of your URL as the audience are generally value the main text that is not disturbed or interrupted by the use of stop words.

For more information on how to implement this on your website, please contact our SEO consultants.