How important is a URL in SEO?

URLs are an essential part of how search engines rank websites. They're how people find the content they want online, and how you can optimize your website for better rankings. 

URLs are what tell search engines how to categorize your content in their database; this is why it's important to make sure every page on your site has a unique URL with keywords you want to be associated with it. 

Here are three major SEO long-tail strategies that will help you do just that.

Optimize URLs for SEO

The first way to use URLs for SEO is to optimize them so they can be found on search engines. This isn’t just including keywords in your URL - it also means keeping the number of characters down and making sure there are no periods or special symbols (underscores work best). All of these things will help you rank higher by telling how relevant each page on your site is to a specific keyword term.

You want people who type certain words into Google to get directed straight to your page. This tells the search engine how popular, useful, or relevant your content is compared to other sites providing similar information. 

If you make good use of SEO long-tail strategies like using keywords in every URL, then you'll see an increase in how often your site is clicked on, how many people join your mailing list, and how much money you make from organic search traffic.

Make Your URL Navigation Intuitive

The second way to use URLs for SEO is to make your site easier to navigate. An intuitive site plan is a user-friendly site plan. There's no point in burying pages four or five layers deep on your website. Keep your subfolders to a minimum and never go deeper than three to ensure Google is reading and ranking them. 

Additionally, make sure you are placing new pages in the domain somewhere that they can be accessed so you don't have any orphan pages.

Orphan pages are simply pages with no links to them. They are like walking off the edge of a cliff into the abyss, and they don't help your SEO. In fact, Google may penalize you for having too many orphaned URLs! So be sure when you're making a new page, that it is linked to somewhere else on your website. This can be a sidebar, a drop-down in navigation, or making sure a blog is under the /blog/ subfolder.

URL Internal Linking

Finally, make sure that whenever someone clicks on an internal link within your site it takes them to another page relevant to what they just clicked on. For example, if you are detailing what to do at the scene of a car accident in Memphis, clicking a link for a "car accident lawyer in Memphis" should take you straight to the car accident practice page where the user can contact the law firm directly. 

Internal linking is one way search engines measure how useful each of your pages are - which is how you get those high rankings.

How to Use URLs for SEO: Make It Easy!

URLs are how we find what we’re looking for, optimize websites, and tell search engines how to categorize content in their database. 

At EverSpark, this is second nature to us. Once we get a new client, we do a deep dive of research discovery, finding the perfect keywords, redoing site plans, and suggesting fixes for every 404, missing redirect, or orphan page we find. 

Whether you are looking for law firm SEO or SEO for financial services (or anything in between), our digital marketing experts and SEO magicians can make your organic traffic dreams come true.

Contact us for a free website audit that identifies glaring issues, missing pages, 404s, and more. Knowledge can only help in your SEO journey.