miji.beAn SEO-friendly URL is a web address structured to be descriptive, concise, and easily parsed by both search engines and human readers. These URLs use plain language words separated by hyphens, avoid unnecessary parameters, and clearly indicate the page's content. For example, "example.com/guides/url-shortening-basics" is far more SEO-friendly than "example.com/page.php?id=47&cat=3."
Search engines use URLs as one of many ranking signals. A URL that contains relevant keywords helps search engines understand the page's topic and can improve click-through rates in search results, as users are more likely to click on a link whose URL clearly describes the content. Google's SEO Starter Guide explicitly recommends using descriptive words in URLs.
In the context of URL shortening, SEO-friendly URLs and short URLs serve different purposes. SEO-friendly URLs are designed for search engine visibility on the destination site, while short URLs are designed for shareability. The ideal approach is to maintain SEO-friendly permalinks on the website and use short URLs as shareable aliases that redirect to those permalinks.
Best practices for SEO-friendly URLs include using lowercase letters, separating words with hyphens rather than underscores, keeping URLs under 60 characters when possible, and avoiding stop words unless they aid readability.