When Was the Last Time You Checked Your SEO URLs?

Bad SEO URLs cause all kinds of confusion. Learn what not to do when creating SEO URLs. Lately, I've noticed that many of our clients' SEO URLs aren't as good as they could be. In addition to new copy for their websites, I also sent them revised SEO URLs that should be far more effective than the URLs they currently have. But let me backtrack a little. In case you don't know what an SEO URL is, here's a simple definition: SEO URLs contain keywords that help users understand where the page will lead them. It also makes it much easier for Google to find the page. The bottom line is: if your URLs don't contain keywords, you're missing out on a golden opportunity.

Examples of Bad SEO URLs

When you've been in the SEO game a long time like our team has, you can recognize bad and ineffective SEO URLs at glance. Here are some examples of lackluster URLS. Bad URL: /wtr-fountain.html New URL: /outdoor-water-fountains Why we changed it: No one is going to search for "wtr fountains." This page wasn't performing as well as it could have if the word "water" were spelled out in the URL. Bad URL: /IronFilters.html New URL: /residential-iron-filters Why we changed it: "Iron" and "filters" are two separate words, and shouldn't be run together like that. Using SEO best practices, we separated them with hyphens. We also added "residential" because the page in question focuses on iron filters for residential use. Bad URL: /long_kitchen_matches New URL: /long-kitchen-matches Why we changed it: Google does not like underscores in URLs. If your pages are under-performing and you have underscores separating the keywords, try replacing the underscores with hyphens. Bad URL: /?page=252 New URL: /anything-is-better-than-that Why we changed it: Imagine you're in a crowded grocery store and you're trying to find oven cleaner. You scan the signs above you for one that says "cleaning supplies" but instead you see "/?page=252." What would you do? You would probably leave the store or spend a long time looking for the cleaning supplies aisle. A URL like this isn't helpful to anyone: not to Google, not to users and certainly not to the site itself. If your URLs look like this, change them now. Don't make it harder than it needs to be.

Changing SEO URLs

The good news is that, once you find a less-than-stellar URL, it's a quick and easy fix. If you have questions about making changes to your SEO URLs, do not hesitate to contact our SEO team. Photo credit: Alex Bellink / Foter / CC BY