One of the most important aspects of on-page SEO is optimizing your website’s URLs. That’s because your URL is one of the first things that search engines will look at when they’re trying to determine what your page is about. And if your URL isn’t optimized, it’s likely that your page won’t rank as highly as it could in search results. Fortunately, there are a few simple things you can do to make sure your WordPress URLs are SEO friendly. In this blog post, we’ll share 5 tips that will help you optimize your WordPress URLs for better search engine visibility.
What is SEO?
SEO is short form for “Search engine optimization”. It is a long-term marketing strategy employed in order to improve a websites visibility and organic search results in google and other global search engines. The main aim of SEO is to attract more visitors to your website through the organic or unpaid search results.
There are various aspects to SEO, from the words on your page to the way other sites link to you on the web. Sometimes SEO is simply a matter of making sure your site is structured in a way that search engines understand.
SEO can be divided into two main categories: On-page SEO and Off-page SEO.
On-page SEO relates to all the factors that make up your website design and content, including title tags, Meta descriptions, header tags, images etc. This also includes your website structure and URL architecture. All these elements need to be optimized in order for your website to rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Off-page SEO relates to all the activities that take place outside of your website that can impact your ranking in the SERPs. This includes things like social media engagement, blog commenting, forum participation, directory listings etc.
The Importance of SEO-Friendly URLs
SEO-friendly URLs are important for two reasons: they help search engines index your pages correctly, and they can boost your click-through rates from SERPs.
First, let’s look at how search engines index pages. When a search engine finds a new website, it will send out what are called “spiders” or “crawlers” to explore the site. These spiders follow links from one page to another, and they take note of the content on each page.
One of the things that spiders look at when they index a page is the URL. A well-structured URL makes it easy for the spider to understand what the page is about and how it fits into the rest of the website. This can help the page rank higher in search results.
In addition to helping with indexing, SEO-friendly URLs can also increase your click-through rates from SERPs. When users see a URL that is relevant to their search query and easy to read, they are more likely to click on it than a URL that is long and difficult to understand.
If you want your WordPress site to be successful, it’s important to use SEO-friendly URLs. Here are a few tips for doing so:
1. Use keyword-rich permalinks: Permalinks are the permanent URLs for your blog posts and pages. By including keywords in your permalinks, you can help improve your rankings for those keywords.
2. Use hyphens to separate words: When creating a URL, it’s important to use hyphens to separate words. This makes it easier for search engines to read and understand your URL.
3. Keep your URLs short and sweet: Long, complicated URLs are difficult for users to remember and type into their browser. They also take up a lot of space in SERPs, which can make your listing less noticeable. Try to keep your URLs under 60 characters.
4. Use relevant keywords: In addition to using keywords in your permalinks, you should also use them throughout your website’s content. This will help search engines understand what your website is about and how it should be ranked in SERPs.
5 Tips for Creating SEO-Friendly WordPress URLs
1. Keep your URLs short and sweet: Long, complicated URLs are confusing and difficult to remember. They also take up more space in SERPS, which can impact your click-through rate. Keep your URLs short, sweet, and to the point.
2. Use keyword-rich permalinks: Permalinks are the permanent URLs of your blog posts and pages. Including relevant keywords in your permalinks will help tell search engines what your content is about, making it easier for them to rank you higher in SERPS.
3. Avoid using stop words: Stop words are common words like “and,” “the,” “or,” etc. that don’t really add any meaning to your content. Including them in your URL will just make it longer and more difficult to read. Instead, focus on using keywords that accurately describe your content.
4. Use hyphens to separate words: When creating a URL with multiple words, be sure to use hyphens (-) to separate them. This makes it easier for both users and search engines to read and understand your URL.
5. Don’t forget about mobile users: With more and more people using mobile devices to access the internet, it’s important to keep mobile users in mind when creating WordPress URLs. Make sure your URL is short enough to type easily on a mobile keyboard, and avoid using special characters that might be difficult to input on a mobile device.
How to Implement These Tips on Your Own WordPress Site
Assuming you are using a self-hosted WordPress site (WordPress.org), there are a few ways you can make your URLs more SEO friendly.
1. Use pretty permalinks: This is the first and easiest thing you can do to make your URLs SEO friendly. By default, WordPress uses ugly permalinks (example.com/?p=123). But you can easily change that in the settings. Go to Settings → Permalinks and select one of the pretty permalink structures, like /%postname%/
2. Use a plugin like Yoast SEO: Yoast is one of the most popular WordPress plugins with over 5 million active installs. It includes an option to automatically generate canonical URLs, which is helpful if you have duplicate content on your site.
3. Use a theme that is optimized for SEO: If you want your WordPress site to be as search engine friendly as possible, it’s important to use a theme that is built with SEO in mind. There are many great themes available that offer features like clean code, responsive design, and support for popular plugins like Yoast SEO.
4. Use a plugin like WPML: If you need to create a multilingual WordPress site, then using a plugin like WPML is the best way to go. It will automatically generate different URLs for each language version of your site.
5. Use a plugin like Redirection: Sometimes you need to redirect an old URL to a new one. For example, if you change your permalink structure, then all of your old URLs will no longer work. In this case, you can use a plugin like Redirection to automatically redirect those old URLs to the new ones.
Conclusion
WordPress is a great platform for SEO, but you need to make sure your URLs are optimized for search engines. By following the tips in this article, you can ensure that your WordPress URLs are friendly to both users and search engines. Implement these tips on your own site and see how they improve your traffic and ranking in the search results.
