URL structure is how your site's page URLs are organized. Shorter, cleaner and more descriptive URLs rank better and are easier to share.
URL structure refers to the format and organization of URLs. Best practices: (1) Short and descriptive: /seo-guide vs. /articles/2024-06-03-article-2; (2) Readable: /services/local-seo vs. /s/sl; (3) Consistent: lowercase, no accents, hyphens between words; (4) Logical hierarchy: site.com/blog/[slug] vs. site.com/random-article-name; (5) Static: permanent URLs that do not change; (6) No unnecessary parameters: /article?utm_source=google&utm_medium=social creates 2 versions of the same URL. Google prefers simple, non-parameterized URLs. Changing a URL requires a 301 redirect and loses some authority in transit.
Bad URLs = harder to crawl, harder to share, weaker at ranking. Clean URLs = better rankings, easier for users to remember (increasing branded traffic).
Source: Google — Simple URLsOn-page SEO covers all the optimizations made directly on your site's pages — titles, headings, content, meta descriptions and URL structure.
Technical SEO covers the optimizations of your site's infrastructure — crawlability, indexing, loading speed, HTTPS and data structure — that let Google find and understand your pages.
A canonical URL is the rel="canonical" attribute that tells Google which is the "true" version of a page when duplicate versions exist (e.g. with and without www, with and without a trailing slash).
Core Web Vitals are 3 technical Google metrics — LCP, INP and CLS — that measure page user experience and have been official ranking factors since 2021.
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