Proper URL structure for SEO

One of the many factors that can have a significant impact on your search engine optimization campaign is the structure of your URLs. It’s common knowledge in the SEO industry that keyword phrases within a URL can help to increase the effectiveness of the other aspects of your campaign, but this is a delicate balancing act that requires a good deal of polishing. For example, if you run a fishing supply store, www.mikesfishingsupplies.com would be a better choice than www.mikessupplies.com. On the other hand, don’t over do it by stuffing your URL full of keywords because it makes it more difficult for visitors (or potential visitors) to remember. It can also trip spam filters in the search engines algorithms, resulting in lower ranking and less traffic. Like everything else, keywords in your URL are best when used in moderation.

You should also ensure that your database driven applications, such as shopping carts, blogs and content management systems create optimized URLs. By default, many of these database driven applications produce URLs filled with variables as in this example:

www.website.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=1

An optimized URL would look like this:

www.wildfiremarketinggroup.com/blog/2007/04/26/8-tips-for-powerful-sales-calls-during-slow-times/

Note the simplicity of the URL and the fact that it contains the page title while not going overboard with keywords.