The 5 Essentials of a URL Structure for SEO

When doing anything online, like visiting a website or specifying where to send an email, you're likely to come across a long string of characters. This strange bundle of text is called a URL, which stands for Uniform Resource Locator. A URL helps specific computers know where they can find the page or data the user is looking for. Understanding the URL structure is essential knowledge if you want to surf the web easily and confidently—luckily, decoding them isn't as difficult as it appears! In this post, we will explore the five basic pieces that make up every single URL and how understanding each section makes navigating different websites much easier.

A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is a type of Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that allows users to access information from remote computers. Simply, it is a web address pointing to a specific website, web page, document, or file.

For example, the URL for Facebook is https://www.facebook.com

A URL comprises five elements: the network protocol or scheme, subdomain, domain name, top-level domain (TLD), and subdirectory.

How is URL essential for SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an essential piece of the puzzle for any business looking to make an impact on the internet. It's meant to ensure that your website shows up higher in the search rankings when consumers are searching for the products and services that you offer. Businesses can improve their SEO by ensuring their URL structure is set up correctly. Not only does this mean ensuring that all URLs are concise, unique and permanent, but it also means that they should be structured with keywords. So it's easier for a user to understand what page it leads to when they land on a website. It ensures customers are able to find products and services more easily. Thus, properly utilizing URLs is an important step in turning web searches into conversions.

Five essential elements of a URL Structure

Protocol or Scheme

The scheme of an URL instructs the web engines what protocols to use while accessing a web page.

Most websites come with the standard protocols HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and HTPPS (HTTP Secure) for web resources and servers. They help transmit messages and access information from the domain name system (DNS) and display it on the browser.

The difference between "http" and "https" is that Https is the secured version of the former. When a URL has "https", it encrypts the data transmitted. Besides, a website with HTTPS is essential for improving search engine ranking.

Information in HTPPS is encrypted by the Transport Layer Security (TLS) and comes in the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) port number 443. Meanwhile, an HTTP URL uses TCP/IP port number 80.

Some less standard protocols used in URL are mailto:// and ftp: //, which is used in specific cases like emailing or transferring files.

Subdomain

Subdomain is used to separate a website from its domain. It is excellent for managing larger website sections, making it easier to segregate and create a separate hierarchy of web pages like online stores, blogs, etc.

For example − In the URL https://blogs.abcd.com, blogs are the subdomain. It allows you to create a separate site section without complexing the site's intent. It is most helpful for online stores. It allows you to create a separate site architecture. For example, you can create a unique architecture only for handling transactions and another for displaying products. This helps in building a niche authority and generates organic traffic.

To create a subdomain, choose a domain name such as abcd.com (abcd is the domain). You can choose unlimited subdomains in your current domain.

Domain

A domain name is the primary name of the website that helps you remember it easily. Technically, it is a text you type on your browser address bar to access a website. For example: In https://www.example.com/, the example is the domain name.

In actuality, the address of a website contains a complex set of numerical IP addresses, such as 192.0.3.2. However, due to DNS, now it is possible to use user-friendly and easily memorable domain names to access a website. The process is known as DNS lookup.

Currently, there are more than 300 million registered domains. But it’s hard to get a domain of your choice. For that, you need to register it with a registrar managed by domain registries.

Top-Level Domain

Domain names contain 2 to 3 parts, each separated with a dot (.).

Top-level domain (TLD) refers to the organization or entity you have registered your website on the internet. The standard type of TLDs are .com, .net, .org, .edu, etc.

TLDs can be further classified into 2LDs and 3LDs. For example, .com and .net are generic TLDs or gTLDs, and .uk and .jp are country-specific TLDs or ccTLDs.

For example − In "google.com"

.com is the generic TLD, while google is the 2LD.

Meanwhile, in "google.co.uk"

.co is the 2LD
.uk is the ccTLD
Google is the 3LD

Subdirectory

Subdirectory is the final part of the UTL. It includes a subfolder allowing crawlers and readers to understand a specific part of a web page.

It generally comes along with a TLD, separated by a slash.

For example In https://www.example.com/blogs

The "blogs" is the subdirectory.

Sometimes it could be a bit complex, such as example.com/blogs/health/ and so on.

A subdirectory has a tree-like structure, with each subfolder having dozens of subfolders and even more. However, too many subfolders are not suitable for SEO. This makes the URL string lengthy and confusing, degrading the user experience and making it difficult for crawls to crawl your website for new content.

On the other hand, having subfolders on your website can be good for SEO as it doesn't dilute your site's domain authority, backlinks, and page authority by keeping them tied to the root domain. The key is to keep the URLs short and straightforward.

Conclusion

URLs are the first thing that people notice when visiting a website. URLs should be chosen and created to be easily memorable, and anyone can enter them in the browser's address bar. User experience is the web's core objective, and using Semantic URLs is considered a best SEO practice.

Semantic URLs contain words containing an inherent meaning that anyone can understand. You may have come across URLs that can look like a mess. The most significant advantage of semantic URLs is that they are easily edited. It gives a hint to the users what the information about where they are, what they will find inside the webpage, and what they can expect inside the page.