What is a URL structure? In short, the URL structure means the systematic design and structure of a page. The bottom line is that a clean URL structure serves to make search engine crawlers jump on it, thus improving page rankings. A URL significantly determines the structure and hierarchy of a website and represents everything in the form of directories. If you have chosen a page structure, you should keep it until the end. How URL structures work exactly and what knowledge you should have about them, you will learn in this blog.

Where does the URL structure start and how does it work?

In general, a URL consists of several parts and, in addition to the META data, is one of the decisive factors for SEO success. Let’s start with the simplest form of URL, namely the simple domain name. Here is an example: www.website.de/ – Here you can now add a directory, which looks like this: www.website.de/verzeichnis/ – After that we can add a file to our page: www.website.de/verzeichnis/datei.html . This is the basis of URL structuring. As you can see, you can read it from the structure of the URL itself and thus recognize everything.

Basic tips on URL structure

The most important thing about the URL structure of your page is that you do not create too many directories and that they also represent the title. A high directory depth can quickly cost you a good ranking, because the crawlers of the most common search engines do not reach that far. So under no circumstances should you choose more than three directory depths, because among other things the URL simply becomes too long. Google bots, for example, always remain on the “surface” of the page and do not reach very deep. Moreover, it is very important that the building blocks of the URL consist of words: Humans and machines can thus better classify the content and a great overview is always an advantage. Although Google is capable of reading very long URLs, you should stick to the basics when it comes to length: short URLs get a much better click-through rate in SERP snippets. URLs longer than 75 characters will be trimmed by Google anyway, so you should take care to remove superfluous parameters.

An even better structure

Especially parameters can be a real blocking factor for the various search engine crawlers. Another factor that many neglect is the dilution of the structure. To avoid this, you should never use session IDs. If these are attached to the URL, different pages with the same content can be “tagged”, degrading your structure. It is therefore recommended to use cookies instead of IDs when you are busy with your site. Furthermore, hyphens should be used instead of underscores because crawlers clearly prefer them.

Why your site structure should be simple

It’s not just that the search engines reward your tidiness, but it’s also that the average user finds content faster and can navigate as well as browse much easier. The user experience is thus improved many times over, which leads to more and more potential customers staying longer on your site and ensuring more traffic. Increased activity is one of the factors that the Google algorithm particularly likes to see, so you benefit accordingly from an even higher ranking. Googlebots have limited resources when it comes to search requests, so you should structure your page to accommodate the crawlers as much as possible. A simple structure is especially bot friendly because they allow the crawler to find and display deeper page structures. Moreover, you also benefit from a tidy structure: Duplicate content and problems with maintenance and care are thus prevented from the outset.

Say goodbye to duplicate content and ballast

Different ULRs with the same content are considered duplicate content by Google and especially if you are the operator of an online store, this can cost you dearly. You will learn how to best structure an online store in the next paragraph. Just in case, we remind you here that you must not forget that the main and target keywords should be included in the URL. Care must be taken to ensure that the optimization does not become an “aggravation”: https://www.katzenladen.de/katzenfutter/katzenfutter-in-dose-html – What do you notice about this ULR? The problem at this point is the fact that the keyword “cat food” is mentioned several times. This has a negative effect on your site and should be avoided as much as possible. Furthermore, you must not forget that Google is placing more and more emphasis on mobile when it comes to SEO. Most smartphone users don’t even see the URL of a page when browsing. As much screen space as possible must be saved. How much the ULR really determines the ranking on Google is debated. What cannot be discussed, however, is how important keywords remain.

What is the best structure for online stores?

The correct URL structure is also of vital importance in the store area: because this subject area contains a lot of “technical jargon”, careless mistakes are often made here that could have been avoided with a little specialist knowledge. The problem, however, is that a careless mistake made in a short period of time can take hours to iron out, and valuable work time can be lost. Although you have enough expertise for the basics of website operation through the facts and figures described above, you still lack the finishing touches for running the online store. One URL model of successful online stores is to provide the different types of pages with their own directory. All category pages are located in a specific folder, just like all product detail and store pages. Thus, the page hierarchy is clearly structured and the domain is very clear. If you keep the URL short, you’ve already won half the battle.

SEO insights

The URL structure of your online store page should be used to perform SEO performance analysis. Furthermore, it should be noted that all optimizations are favored and accelerated by a clear page structure. You will see more optimization possibilities and explanations in further articles on our site. You must keep in mind that it is not enough for companies to optimize their pages according to the well-known SEO factors and that it is necessary to dig deeper into the “bag of tricks”: On-site factors must have the highest priority and must not be ignored. The URL structure remains one of the most fundamentally important factors in search engine ranking and your traffic. If this topic seems too difficult for you, feel free to contact us: eBakery has over 10 years of experience in e-commerce and we are looking forward to answering your questions – also on advanced topics such as Amazon SEO. Please feel free to make an appointment for a non-binding meeting, we are already looking forward to hearing from you!