What Is a URL Structure and Does It Affect SEO?

Author - Nathan Lock

Nathan is an SEO Account Executive with over four years of experience across e-commerce, digital marketing and SEO. Before moving into SEO, he spent three years working in ecommerce, gaining experience across areas including product content, search visibility and customer behaviour. He now works with a range of clients to improve their organic visibility and create content that meets both user needs and search best practices. Nathan holds a First-Class Honours degree in Business and Marketing, and has a particular interest in content strategy, on-page SEO and the evolving relationship between traditional and AI search.

A URL is more than just the address you type into your browser. It tells users and search engines where to find a particular page or resource on your website. 

For website owners, getting your URL structure right can make pages easier to understand, navigate and share. It can also provide search engines with useful information about a page’s topic.  But how much does URL structure actually matter for SEO? And what does a good URL structure look like?

In this guide, we’ll explain what a URL structure is, the different parts of a URL, and the SEO best practices for URL structure.

What Is a URL Structure?

A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the web address used to access a specific page or resource online. This could be a webpage, image, PDF, video or another file.

For example:

https://www.seoworks[.]co.uk/blog/url-structure-guide

The URL structure refers to the different components that make up this address.

A URL can contain several elements, including:

• https:// – Scheme
• www – Subdomain
• seoworks.co.uk – Domain
• /blog/ – Subfolder
• url-structure-guide – Slug
• ? parameters – Optional values used for things such as filtering, sorting or tracking
• anchor/fragment – Optional part that takes users to a specific section of a page

However, not every URL will contain every component. The path tells users and search engines where the page sits within the website, while the slug identifies the specific page.

Does URL Structure Affect SEO?

Yes, URL structure can affect SEO, although it is only one part of how search engines understand and rank a page.

Search engines can use words within a URL to help understand a page’s topical relevance. A clear, descriptive URL therefore provides useful context about what a page contains.

For example:

seoworks.co.uk/blog/url-structure-guide

is much easier to understand than:

seoworks.co.uk/page?id=456

The first URL gives both users and search engines an indication of what the page is about. This is why following URL structure best practices is worthwhile. A well-structured URL can make your website easier to navigate and your pages easier to understand.

That said, you don’t need to force keywords into every URL or make URLs unnecessarily complicated. The aim should be to create URLs that are clear, concise and descriptive.

What Makes a Good URL Structure?

A good URL structure should be straightforward for both people and search engines to understand.

There isn’t one universal structure that every website needs to follow. Your URLs should reflect the way your website is organised while avoiding unnecessary complexity.

For example, a simple URL such as:

example.com/shoes

is easier to read than:

example.com/category/products/footwear/shoes123

The shorter version immediately communicates what the page is about without adding unnecessary levels of information.

SEO Best Practices for URL Structure

1. Use HTTPS

Use HTTPS rather than HTTP. HTTPS encrypts information transferred between a user’s browser and your website’s server, helping to protect the connection. Google has also confirmed HTTPS as a ranking signal. Modern browsers can also warn users when they visit websites that aren’t using a secure connection.

2. Keep URLs Short and Simple

There is no benefit to making a URL longer than necessary.

A concise URL is easier to read, type and share. It can also make it easier for users to understand what they will find on the page. This doesn’t mean every URL needs to be extremely short. Instead, remove words and folders that don’t provide useful information.

How long should a URL be for SEO?

There isn’t a specific character limit you need to hit. Rather than focusing on an exact length, concentrate on making the URL as short as reasonably possible while still describing the page accurately.

A concise, descriptive URL is generally preferable to one with unnecessary words, folders, or parameters.

3. Use Clear and Descriptive Words

Your URL should give users a reasonable idea of what the page is about. Clear URLs can also provide search engines with additional context about a page’s topic.

Avoid relying on vague URLs, unnecessary abbreviations, or automatically generated strings of numbers and characters. Also consider whether numbers are necessary. If a page’s content may be updated later, including a specific number in the URL can make the URL less suitable for the revised content.

For example, if you publish a blog titled “10 Best Wedding Locations in Scotland”, you could use:

/blog/10-best-wedding-locations-scotland

However, if you later expand the article to include 15 or 20 locations, the number in the URL is no longer accurate. A better approach would be:

/blog/best-wedding-locations-scotland

This allows you to update and expand the content without the URL becoming outdated.

4. Use Hyphens To Separate Words

Use hyphens (-) between words in your URLs. Hyphens make URLs easier for people to read and are also recommended by Google because they help search engines identify concepts within a URL.

5. Keep URLs Lowercase

Using lowercase URLs provides consistency and avoids potential issues because URLs can be case-sensitive.

For example:

example.co.uk/About VS example.co.uk/about

could be treated as different URLs. If both exist and serve the same content, this can create duplicate content issues. Using lowercase also makes URLs easier to type, read and share.

6. Be Careful With URL Parameters

Parameters are additional values added to the end of a URL, beginning with a question mark. 

For example:

example.com/shoes?sortBy=newest

Parameters can help with filtering, sorting, and tracking. However, manage them carefully, because different parameter variations can create multiple URLs with identical or very similar content.

Where appropriate, canonical tags can tell search engines which version of a page is preferred. This can help reduce the risk of duplicate URLs competing with each other.

7. URL Structure and Website Organisation

Your URL structure can also reflect the way your website is organised. 

For example:

example.com/blog/seo/url-structure

Uses folders to show a hierarchy within the site.

Subfolders can help organise content into categories or directories, but not every URL needs multiple folder levels. The key is to avoid creating unnecessarily deep or complicated structures just to add more folders.

A simpler structure is often easier for users to understand and easier to manage as the website grows.

8. What About Changing an Existing URL?

If an existing URL is already live and performing well, changing it just to make it look slightly cleaner may not be worth it.

Changing URLs can have wider implications because the old address may already be linked to from other websites, bookmarked by users or indexed by search engines. If you need to change a URL, make sure the old URL redirects to the new one rather than simply removing it.

For websites with large numbers of URLs, it is also worth regularly checking for technical URL issues rather than relying on manual checks.

Final Thoughts

A well-structured URL is just one part of a successful SEO strategy. From technical SEO and keyword targeting to content optimisation and site structure, there are plenty of factors that can influence how your website performs in search.

If you’re unsure whether your website is making the most of its SEO opportunities, our team can help. Get in touch with us today to discuss your website and see how we can help improve your visibility, attract more relevant traffic and support your wider SEO goals.

FAQs About URL Structure and SEO

How Do I Create SEO-Friendly URLs?

To create SEO-friendly URLs, use clear words that accurately describe the page, keep the URL concise, separate words with hyphens, use lowercase characters and avoid unnecessary parameters or complicated strings of numbers and characters.

Does URL Structure Affect SEO?

Yes. Search engines consider URLs when determining which results to show, and words within a URL can provide information about a page’s topical relevance. URL structure is therefore one of several factors worth considering as part of your overall SEO strategy.

What Is URL Structure in SEO?

URL structure in SEO refers to how the different elements of a web address are organised, including the domain, path, subfolders and slug. A clear URL can help users and search engines understand where a page sits within a website and what it is about.