Technical SEO5 min read

SEO-Friendly URLs: How to Structure Your Website Addresses

A good URL tells both Google and your visitors exactly what a page is about. Here's how to get it right.

By Oh So SEO·13 February 2025

Why URL Structure Matters for SEO

URLs are one of the signals Google uses to understand what a page is about. They're also shown in search results, which affects click-through rates. A good URL is short, descriptive, and includes your target keyword.

What Makes a Good URL?

Short: Under 75 characters where possible. Descriptive: The URL should reflect the page content. /services/ is fine. /page-47-b/ is not. Keyword-rich: Include your target keyword. Not stuffed — just naturally included. Lowercase: URLs are case-sensitive on some servers. Use lowercase to avoid duplicate content issues. Hyphens, not underscores: Google treats hyphens as word separators. Underscores are treated as connectors. Use-hyphens-like-this, not_underscores_like_this. No unnecessary parameters: Avoid /page?id=47&ref=home when /our-services/ says the same thing.

Examples

Bad URLs:

yoursite.com/p=1289

yoursite.com/blog/2024/03/15/my-post-about-seo-tools-for-small-businesses-that-i-wrote-this-week

yoursite.com/SERVICES/WebDesign

Good URLs:

yoursite.com/seo-tools-small-business

yoursite.com/blog/seo-audit-guide

yoursite.com/services/web-design

URL Structure for Different Site Types

Blog posts: yoursite.com/blog/[keyword-rich-slug] Service pages: yoursite.com/services/[service-name] Product pages: yourstore.com/products/[product-name] Location pages: yoursite.com/[city-name]

Should You Include Dates in Blog URLs?

Generally no. Dates make URLs longer and can make content look outdated even when you update it. "seo-guide-2019" sounds stale. "seo-guide" is evergreen. The exception: news sites and time-sensitive content where the date is relevant to the user.

Changing Existing URLs

Important warning: changing a URL that already has rankings or backlinks can destroy that SEO value if not done correctly. Always set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. This tells Google the page has permanently moved and transfers most of the ranking value. If your site has poor URLs but is already ranking, the risk-reward of changing them may not be worth it unless the URLs are actively harmful.

FAQ

Do URLs affect rankings significantly? URL structure is a minor ranking factor. The impact is smaller than title tags, content quality, or backlinks. But it's worth getting right from the start. How do I change URLs on Shopify? In Shopify, you can edit the URL handle in the page/product/collection editor. Shopify automatically creates redirects from the old URL. What about long, complex URLs from URL builders? If you're using UTM parameters for tracking (e.g. ?utm_source=email), these don't affect SEO as Google ignores them. But canonicalise to the clean version.