One topic that comes up often when optimizing a website for the search engines involves URLs. How should they be constructed, optimized and what do each of the pieces mean are common questions.
As we explain in an SEO knowledge center article from a few months ago, a URL should be as simple as possible so the search engines can easily crawl and index it. If you’re trying to achieve high search engine rankings in the shortest amount of time, URLs need to be short and contain different keywords for efficient crawling.
Dynamic URLs like you see on many ecommerce sites can overtax a search engine spider computer program trying to crawl and index your site. A site with short, static URLs will be crawled and indexed more efficiently and ranked higher.
But what are the different parts to a URL and thus how would I know if mine is setup correctly?
Well, Dr. Pete at SEOMoz just released a wonderful cheat sheet that outlines the different parts of a URL, including parts where Google looks for keyword phrases and other tips to optimize your URL for the search engines.
It’s an interesting chart where I was able to learn a couple things myself about URLs.
This all reminds me of an old saying – “the more you know, the more you realize you don’t know”.
It’s true, you never can stop learning. So take a look, download and keep this little URL cheat sheet handy for future reference.