How to Write SEO-Friendly URLs

What this means

A URL is a page's address, such as yoursite.com/wedding-cakes. A site audit flags addresses that are hard to read: long strings of numbers, codes, symbols or unrelated words, such as yoursite.com/index.php?id=4471&cat=12.

Why it matters

People see your address in Google's results, in links people share, and in the browser bar. A short address made of words tells them what the page is before they click, and it looks more trustworthy than a string of codes. Google also reads the words in an address as a small hint about the page's topic.

It's a minor issue compared with broken pages or missing titles, so fix the important things first.

What a good address looks like

• Words, not numbers: /wedding-cakes rather than /p=4471.
• Short: three to five words is usually enough.
• Hyphens between words, not underscores or spaces.
• Lowercase throughout.
• No dates unless the date matters, because they make content look old.
• Describes the page: /services/boiler-repair, not /services/page-2.

How to fix it

Set good addresses for new pages

This is where the effort pays off most.

• WordPress: go to Settings, then Permalinks, and choose "Post name". Then edit the address (the slug) of each new page in the page settings before you publish.
• Shopify: edit the "URL handle" under "Edit website SEO" at the bottom of a product, collection or page.
• Wix: edit the URL slug in each page's SEO settings.
• Squarespace: edit the URL slug in each page's settings.

Change existing addresses carefully

Changing the address of a page that already exists breaks every link to it and loses the history Google has for it, unless you add a redirect.

1. Only change addresses that are really poor, or pages that are new and have few links.
2. Change the address in your site builder.
3. Add a permanent (301) redirect from the old address to the new one. Shopify offers to do this when you change a handle; on WordPress, the Redirection plugin or your SEO plugin can do it. The guide on redirects covers each platform.
4. Update the links on your own pages to the new address.

If you switch WordPress's permalink setting on an established site, WordPress redirects many old addresses for you, but test a few and add redirects for any that break.

Checking your fix

Open the new address and the old one. The old one should land on the new one.

If you use Duality, tick the page in Site Audit and choose Verify my fixes to check it again straight away.