What is a URL? The importance of URLs in website SEO optimization

Most of us have heard and know what the term URL is . However, did you know that the URL address is an important Onpage factor in SEO that helps the website to rank high on the SERPs? So what exactly is a URL and how to optimize it to become friendly in the eyes of Google? Follow the article below!

What is a URL?

URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is a website address, specifying the location of a unified resource on the Internet. The job of the URL is to bring users to the right website to find. Each valid URL points to only a single resource, which can be an HTML page, a CSS document, an image, a video, a PDF file, etc.

In addition, URLs can also point to resources that do not exist or have been moved to another location.

Each URL consists of many different parts, and the way the URL is created will have a certain impact on website security or SEO effectiveness. Includes hostname (hostname) that refers to the IP address of a resource on the Internet. The IP address is like a phone number and the hostname is like the name of the person who owns the phone number.

Another standard called the Domain Name System (DNS) acts like a phone book that translates hostnames into corresponding IP addresses. The URL address is the text message instead of the IP address that the computer uses to link the browser to the server.

For example, if you type https://example.com/blog/url-la-gi/ into your browser, your web browser will take you to this post. But if you just enter https://example.com/, you will be taken to the homepage of this website.

URL structure

The structure of a URL usually includes the following components:

• Protocols: http, https, ftp,…
• World Wide Web: www (may not be commonly referred to as non-www)
• Domain (domain) Example: https://example.com/
• Communication port (port): 80, 8090, 443, 2081, 7777….

To better understand what the components of a URL are , I’ll dive into the URL structure analysis below. A URL will include 2 main components: Schema (connection protocol) and Authority (provider).

Scheme (connection protocol)

Schema (connection protocol) is the beginning of the URL, ending before a colon. Schema represents the protocol your web browser uses to communicate with the server. The schema section specifies how data is transferred between the browser and the server.

Currently, the main network protocols used by websites are HTTP and HTTPS (the secure version of HTTP) . However, browsers can also handle other protocols such as mailto: (opens mail clients) or ftp: (hands file transfers) . Therefore, you should not be too surprised if you see these types of Protocol protocols.

There are three common types of schema protocols :

• HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol): HTTP protocol for transferring hypertext. This is the basic transport protocol of the website, which determines the server’s actions with the web browser using certain commands. Http uses port 80 for communication.
• HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure): secure HTTP protocol. This protocol works on top of an encrypted, secure layer called SSL (Secure Socket Layer) to transmit information more securely. Https uses port 433 to transmit data.
• FTP (File Transfer Protocol): file transfer protocol. The protocol used to convert files between the browser and the web server.

Authority (vendor)

Authority is the part after 2 slashes that serialize the protocol that includes the World Wide Web (www) and the domain name.

Example: “www.example.com”

In the example above, the entire “www.example.com” section called hostname is responsible for obtaining an IP address. If you already know the IP address, you can type it in your browser’s address bar instead of hostname.

Here, I will give you a closer look at the Authority of a URL. Follow up!

>>Hint: What is Slug ? Role of Slug URL in SEO

Domain (Top Top Domain)

As an example, the top-level domain is “com”. This is the highest level in the domain name hierarchy used to translate IP addresses into simple, easy-to-remember language. These domains are created and managed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Currently, in the world, there are 3 popular types of top-level domains: .com, .net, .gov . Some countries also have 2 digit top-level domain names such as .vn (Vietnam), .us (USA), .ca (Canada),…

In addition, there are some additional premium domain names such as .museum, .club, .life, .news,… However, these domains are less popular, so when choosing a domain name for the website, it is often not used by users. Popularity.

>> See also: What is a domain ? How to choose Domain Name to promote SEO?

Subdomain (Subdomain)

According to the above example, both the “www” and “example” parts are subdomains. Where, “www” is the subdomain of both the top level domain “.com” and the subdomain “example”.

That’s why you may see domains like “www.google.com”, “news.google.com”, “mail.google.com”,… Instead of “www”, many organizations Replace with news.subdomain.domain, or mail, life, etc.

Here is an example of the Authority part of the URL. In addition, the Authority of the URL can be more complex consisting of 2 other components:

• • User Information: Authority contains the username and password portion of the website you are visiting. The user information section is preceded by the server name section and is linked to the server name by “@”. (Example: “//username:[email protected]”).
  • Port number: Network devices use IP addresses to receive information from the appropriate servers on the network. In it, the IP address is associated with the hostname with a “:” sign. (Example: “//www.example.com:8080”).

What is a URL? What does the URL structure consist of?

>>Reference: What is a subdomain ? When to use subdomains?

Role of URLs in SEO

URL address is an onpage factor that plays a very important role in SEO, having an impact on the website’s SEO strategy.

Why?

Try typing any keyword on the Google search engine. You will see hundreds of results returned along with links to access and look up information.

Take a look at the first results! Those are websites that have been optimized for SEO and meet Google’s evaluation standards.

You can also see these when using SEO tools or checking SEO for your website. The Slug section displayed on search engines is the content in the website you are looking for.

SEO standard URL evaluation factors 

If you want your website to show up well on search engines and users to find you as quickly as possible, the URL must meet some of Google’s quality criteria. I will talk more about the criteria in the following section. Stay tuned for more!

Short URLs

The factor that I want to mention here is the URL length. Deciding on URL length is not as difficult as you think. The search algorithm has been changed by Google.

As follows:

• • • Average URL length for Gmail is 59 characters
    • Average URL length for blogs is 76 characters
    • The average URL length for Webmaster Tools is 90 characters.
    • The maximum length of the URL for users to fully see the main keyword in it is 70 characters.

The simpler the URL structure of the website, the better. Consider organizing your content so that the URLs are structured in the most logical and understandable way for users. If possible, use easy-to-understand words instead of long ID numbers in the URL

According to SEO experts, you should optimize URLs as short as possible. However, short does not mean only 1-2 words on the URL. Which is to optimize the URL as short as possible but still ensure that the URL fully represents the content and topic of the article being talked about.

URL does not contain accents and special characters

You should put URLs as unsigned letters and separated by a dash “-” . The URL should not be set as an accented Vietnamese letter because the Google bot may not understand it and judge it as a non-standard URL.

URL contains SEO keywords

For SEO tools, the URL containing the main keyword is always a reminder factor. Besides, this is also a way to help Google’s search bot quickly understand the article content through Title, Description, URL and rank for your article.

In addition, URLs containing SEO keywords also help increase user experience, increase click-through rates.

Use up to two subfolders

Using too many subdomains will make your Website undervalued. The simpler the URL structure, the better. Therefore, if you want to optimize, you should invest in making a new website if possible. Besides, you need to study the page hierarchy before building a website.

Also, if you want to learn about the number of folders to use then I would recommend choosing only one or two. This makes the URL more attractive and search engine friendly.

Subdirectories are a lot more SEO friendly than subdomains. That’s because Google may treat a subdomain as a completely separate website. But when you move that section to a subfolder, Google knows that it’s part of the main site

Why optimize URLs when doing SEO?

The URL optimization helps the website to get the love from Google and users. Users can understand what your website is talking about, whether in the browser or on the search engine (SERP). From there, Google also appreciates your website.

In general, optimizing URLs when doing SEO will bring the following benefits:

• • • Increase Website Ranking on SERPs.
    • Increase the ability to click on the article link, high conversion rate and bring revenue to the business.
    • It is easy for users to remember and return to searching for the URL. For the case of backlink building, URL anchor text has the ability to build diverse keywords very well

See more about 9 steps to optimize url according to seo standards: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gsE01WrGxSsemlBubjBKTf5fm_8XBhdk/preview

Find out if changing URL structure affects SEO?

Frequently asked questions about URLs

What are the criteria of an SEO canonical URL?

• Short URLs
• URL does not contain accents and special characters
• URL contains SEO keywords
• Use up to two subfolders

What is the maximum length of a URL in Chrome?

Google Chrome allows a maximum URL length of 2MB (2048 characters). In Firefox, the length of the URL can be unlimited, but actually after 65,536 characters, the location bar no longer shows the URL.

Are URLs case sensitive?

URLs are case sensitive. If you have both uppercase and lowercase versions of your site’s domain name, you could inadvertently make Google’s job harder – and hurt your own site’s performance.

Is the URL a Web address?

A URL (aka Universal Resource Locator) is a complete web address used to find a specific web page. Although a domain is the name of the website, a URL will lead to any page within the website.

What is the difference between an IP address and a URL?

A URL is a uniform resource locator, while an IP address is an internet protocol address. URL is a combination of hostname, path, location, and protocol followed, while IP address is a combination of digits between 0 – 255.

What is WWW called in a URL?

The most common subdomain is “www”, a common symbol for any resource on the web. However, it is common to specify the type of resource the browser should provide.

Reference articles

>> What is SEO ? Is doing SEO Website necessary?

>> What is Onpage SEO > 21 Latest basic and advanced Onpage SEO optimization standards

From the above article, you can see that URL is a particularly important onpage factor in SEO. Therefore, a complete understanding of URLs and how to use them is essential for SEOs. Hopefully the above sharing helps you have a more specific view of the URL as well as how to optimize the URL to help the website rank well and increase the conversion rate.