Descriptive URLs For SEO

Many Content Management Systems (CMS), such as WordPress, create dynamically generated URLs. These URLs look something like this:

http://example.com/page.php?id=1

Now, just looking at the link above you can’t possibly know what type of content is on the page. In contrast, look at this link:

http://example.com/webhosting-for-beginners

You have at least a general idea about the content when you see this link, and search engines are no different.

The best way to transition to using URLs that are descriptive is to use a plug-in so you do not have to handle this process manually. A popular WordPress plugin is Advanced Permalinks, which gives you lots of options for URL generation.

In the event that you do have to hand-fix some pages, match the keywords you want to rank for to the URL for the biggest bang to your SEO ranking. Dashes (“Descriptive-URLs”) are a common form of separating words in the URL.

As always, search engine optimization should help both the reader and the search engines. Descriptive URLs accomplish both and that’s why search engines reward these efforts.Keep up with posts like this by subscribing to our RSS feed, or following @WhoIsHosting on Twitter.