Search engine friendly (SEF) URL’s are:
- Important to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation
- Easily readable by both search engines and humans
- Short compared to regular URL’s
SEF URL’s are URL’s that are structured by only using necessary characters and key words.
Why are key words important in URL’s?
Keywords are used by search engine spiders to assist in determining the relevance of a page. Search engines spiders find and index webpages. The index is ranked based on relevance and authority of the webpage compared to what the user has searched. A search engine spider will use URLs among other webpages elements (including XML site maps) to create their index.
A SERF URL is more assessable for search engine spiders to use when ranking their index. Words in the URL will be identified as keywords. Keywords that are relevant to the search will be ranked high in the index.
The index is then used when the search engine is creating a Search Engine Response page (SERP). Webpages that are high on the index will display on the first Search Engine Response page.
Using unnecessary words (words that are not key words) in URL’s
Search engine spiders will treat all words in a URL like a keyword. If your URL contains words that are not relevant to the content on your website, the URL’s won’t be seen as relevant based on what the user has searched.
Examples :
Bad URL’s (not SEF URL’s)
Example 1
| https://example.com/blog/wp-admin/post.php?post=8&action=edit |
| https://example.com/index.php |
Even though these two pages are different with different content the search engine will see them as the same page. This will then affect the SERP (Search engine response page).
Example 2
| http://www.example.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1:welcome &catid=1:latest- news&Itemid=50 |
This URL contains words that are not keywords like option, view, catid ect. Even though these are not key words, search engines will treat them like they are. This will cause websites and web pages to be indexed incorrectly.
The additional symbols also make it harder for a human to read. Instead use techniques that will hide the file extension, request and response protocols.
Search Engine Friendly (SEF) URL’s
Example 1
| https://emolyy.art/methods |
Contains only the domain and page name.
Example 2
| https://emolyy.art/all-artworks/digital-art |
Contains only the domain, page name and article name.
Great use of examples to explain your points.