Url is the unique address of a web page on the internet. Its role is to identify the sites and give directions to access them. Thus, among the ton of resources available on the web, the URL helps to locate each web page. It is an essential element of your internet presence: without URLs, your pages cannot be found!
If you’re wondering how to set a good URL, read on to this article. We give you advice on how to optimize your URLs.
URL: what is it?
Defining a URL
The exact definition of a URL is “Uniform Resource Locator”, meaning “uniform resource locator” in French translation. To put it simply, a URL is a web address that provides access to a web page. It is made up of a string of special characters.
For example, the URL of the home page of our website is: “https://www.proinfluent.com/”.
What is a URL made of?
All addresses are formed the same way. Take the example of the address of this page: https://www.proinfluent.com/formation-prospection-linkedin/
It breaks down into 5 parts:
- The protocol: HTTP or HTTPS. At the beginning of each address, there is HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) or HTTPS (the secure version of the HTTP protocol). Protocols are the technical bases that govern the functioning of internet pages.
- The subdomain: “www” which means World Wide Web, that is to say the “world web”.
- The domain name: “proinfluent”. That’s the name of the site!
- The extension: “.com”. Many extensions exist: “.fr”, “.com”, “.org”, etc.
- The directory or the path: / formation-prospection-linkedin /. It provides access to the different pages of a website.
Why optimize a URL?
1. To facilitate your visibility with your targets
URLs are present and visible on many media : on your social networks ( LinkedIn ™ , Facebook ™, Pinterest ™ , etc.), on the results of Google search pages, and even on your paper communication tools ( visit card , flyers , etc.).
In a URL, not all parts are editable, but you can choose:
- The domain name: it claims the purpose of your business. Favor a concise domain name, which “speaks” to your target and which is easily remembered.
- The extension: Uses recommend opting for “.fr” for French companies, “.com” for companies operating internationally and “.org” for organizations / associations.
Ideally, each URL should be short, meaningful, and unique. The simpler the URL, the easier it will be to identify and remember.
2. For SEO
When you search for a product or information, you enter a few keywords in the search bar. Based on this query, the search engine analyzes its index and offers a list of web pages classified according to different criteria. The URL is one of those criteria! Thereby, the easier your URL works for the search engine, the higher your pages go up in the results.
That’s why, even though SEO depends on a lot of other factors, every URL on your site needs to be perfectly optimized in order to rise in the top rows of Google.
3 tips for an SEO optimized URL
1. Use the HTTPS protocol
Today, it is impossible to miss the HTTPS protocol (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure) especially if you exchange data with your readers (personal information, bank details, etc.). In order to improve the protection of your site and reassure your visitors, adopt this secure protocol. It also brings a bonus to your natural referencing, because Google has made it a criterion of its algorithms.
2. Choose specific words
An optimized URL should:
- contain your keywords,
- not to be too long,
- give information similar to the content of the page,
- not have an abbreviation or number.
For example this URL: https://www.proinfluent.com/services/ and much more understandable than this one: https://proinfluent.com/serv24598§th26/
3. Remove unnecessary characters
Clean up your URLs as much as possible by:
- removing stop words (de, la, les, du, etc.),
- removing accents and special characters,
- avoiding capital letters.
Always use the top dash (of 6) to separate the words between them.
URL of a website: definition and advice to optimize its referencing: in conclusion
- Use the HTTPS protocol.
- Include keywords to help SEO your pages. Indeed, it is the words displayed in the URL that help search engine spiders to index your page.
- Take care to design an understandable URL to promote the click of the user. And yes ! The simpler and more clear the information, the more likely you are to be chosen.
- Clean up your URLs by removing stop words, accents and all caps.
URL of a website: to summarize in four questions
Que signifie le mot URL ?
URL stands for “Uniform Resource Locator”. It is the address of a page of a website, structured in a certain way so that it is accessible by all and in the whole world by a browser.
De quoi est composée une URL ?
All URLs have the same structure which can be broken down into 5 parts:
- The protocol.
- The subdomain.
- The domain name.
- The extension.
- The directory.
Pourquoi optimiser une URL ?
We recommend optimizing all the URLs on your website to promote your SEO and improve your click-through rates. Indeed, an optimized URL is more readable and understandable by the search engines which reference it better and by the Internet user who seeks an answer to his question.
Comment optimiser une URL pour le référencement naturel ?
If you want to position yourself in the first pages of Google, the URLs of your website must be flawless. Think carefully about your domain name which should reflect your activity. Each URL on your site should be well-optimized, that is, short, with one or two keywords separated by hyphens.
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