How to Make your URLs SEO Friendly

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by CircleOfLinks, Jun 29, 2011.

  1. #1
    Hey Guys,

    I'm hoping someone could help me with something.

    My site so far is getting around 60-40 traffic - 60% PPC and 40% Organic results. Approx 30-40 unique hits per day.

    Ive done SEO to my site but i'm not sure on how to improve it from here.

    Im hoping some experts here can tell me the best way to make my URLs more SEO friendly so they no longer show up with the .php at the end in the address bar.

    as an example for my logo design page. It currently goes to MYSITE.com.au/logo_design_special.php and i wanted it to just show up as logo_design_special/ - I want to do this to all pages so far there is about 90 pages in total.

    I have already setup my .htaccess to point back to MYSITE.com.au/index.php[/url] and also configured a custom page not found 404 .

    the site im refering to is www.swiftproductions.com.au

    thanks
     
    Last edited: Jun 29, 2011
    CircleOfLinks, Jun 29, 2011 IP
  2. danielwood

    danielwood Member

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    #2
    you don't need to rewrite your url from logo_design.php to logo_design. It doesn't make a difference.

    URL rewriting is needed when you have special characters in your URL like if you have the url like www.domain.com/cat=47&item_id=22&s_id=2 then you need to do URL rewriting so that it would be helpful for your visitors & SE both. If you have keyword in URL then it is good from SE point of view and for users it would be easy to understand what your page is all about.
     
    danielwood, Jun 29, 2011 IP
  3. liveindiantvchannels

    liveindiantvchannels Peon

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    #3
    Making you URL seo friendly can give you better SERP in Search engine .Making a URL seo friendly is mean by putting you main keyword to the URL
     
    liveindiantvchannels, Jun 29, 2011 IP
  4. hoodaki

    hoodaki Member

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    #4
    You should be add at your header canonical Meta Tag, It might be removed multiple pages problems, some of the other topics URL rewriting, URL rewriting is required at stage when your page url as session ID, query string, Most important thing is place keyword in your URL for which you want to promote your website.
     
    hoodaki, Jun 29, 2011 IP
  5. CircleOfLinks

    CircleOfLinks Active Member

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    #5
    ok so my understanding here is that there is no need to have my url without the .php extension? i just though it would be easier to se... Also almost all my pages have the keyword in the url of that particular page.

    Is there anything else i can do to help increase rankings and positions.

    Also is is better to use _ or - ?? example logo_design or logo-design ?

    thank you
     
    CircleOfLinks, Jun 29, 2011 IP
  6. developer619

    developer619 Peon

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    #6
    You can use dash rather than underscores
     
    developer619, Jun 29, 2011 IP
  7. garryhuds

    garryhuds Member

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    #7
    Use your keyword in the url & make sure use of underscores...
     
    garryhuds, Jun 29, 2011 IP
  8. danielwood

    danielwood Member

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    #8
    Use hyphen instead of underscores. As if you have url like keyword1_keyword2.html then it would get priority if someone type in Google search for keyword1_keyword2 (which is a rare case) while if you have URLs like keyword1-keword2 then it would be useful in all the cases whether one searches for keyword1 or keyword 2 or keyword1 keyword2. As told by Matt Cutt in his blog: mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/
     
    danielwood, Jun 30, 2011 IP
  9. CircleOfLinks

    CircleOfLinks Active Member

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    #9
    ahhh ok... thank you so much daniel...

    If i change all my urls to ready as an example from logo_design.php to logo-design.php how can i have the logo_design.php re-direct to the new url?

    I will have a read of it tomorrow when im at the office. thanks mate

    Just a silly question but would anyone know if my site would be ready to get into DMOZ if not is there anything else i can do to the site to help its rankings online and what i can do to get the site listed in DMOZ?

    thanks
     
    CircleOfLinks, Jun 30, 2011 IP
  10. danielwood

    danielwood Member

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    #10
    if you haven't work for your site till now, i mean to say haven't got listed your URL anywhere, i would suggest you to rename your pages as you would not receive any harm. otherwise you have to do a 301 redirection page wise. If your site is hosted on IIS server then you could ask your hosting company for the same. If it is hosted on Apache then you have to add the redirection code in htaccess file.
     
    danielwood, Jun 30, 2011 IP
  11. webdesigndevelopment

    webdesigndevelopment Member

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    #11
    I suggest you to please don't rewrite the URLs from /logo_design_special.php
    to logo_design_special/.

    Because search engine crawlers are OK with .php URLs. It has problem with dynamic URLS only. For Example. /logo_design_special.php?f=21. This can cause a problem in SEO. If you have this kind of URLs you should have change it.

    Second thing is that, to make a URL SEO friendly you should have your main targeted keyword in the URL. You have "logo design special" in your domain if its your main keywords than its good SEO friendly URL. Keep your URLS short and easy to remember.

    So, I don't recommend you to change the URL.
     
    webdesigndevelopment, Jun 30, 2011 IP
  12. link@logicspice.com

    link@logicspice.com Active Member

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    #12
    You can create couple of new page with long tell keywords and Include them in Url, This very easy thing to do with old domain.
     
    link@logicspice.com, Jun 30, 2011 IP
  13. seogenies11

    seogenies11 Peon

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    #13
    Your URLs should contain your main targeted keywords and less complicated.
     
    seogenies11, Jul 14, 2011 IP
  14. seoexpertuk

    seoexpertuk Peon

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    #14
    No Flash, No Animation and less page size. If it is dynamic site, use url rewriter. Use external style sheet.
     
    seoexpertuk, Jul 14, 2011 IP
  15. DIGITALCHAMELEON

    DIGITALCHAMELEON Peon

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    #15
    Make your URL short and as much as possible your main keyword is present in your URL.
     
    DIGITALCHAMELEON, Jul 14, 2011 IP
  16. efwebm

    efwebm Peon

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    #16
    You want your homepage to be a good landing page for PPC, so focus your seo on inner pages. Make new pages for each keyword you want to target, and make the url "homepage.com/keyword"

    Don't worry about trying to get a new domain.
     
    efwebm, Jul 14, 2011 IP
  17. coder0403

    coder0403 Peon

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    #17
    The url should be easy to read and short. You can put your main keyword in the url.
     
    coder0403, Jul 14, 2011 IP
  18. seosaroj

    seosaroj Member

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    #18
    Try to get your KW's in your url. that would be much helpful for you.
     
    seosaroj, Jul 14, 2011 IP
  19. davimclean

    davimclean Peon

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    #19
    you URL should be short and easy to understand, so that the visitor doesn't have any problems reading it
     
    davimclean, Jul 14, 2011 IP
  20. payaldurga

    payaldurga Peon

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    #20
    Great suggestions and advices. even i believe that your main keyword should be in your url with less complications.
    cheers
     
    payaldurga, Jul 14, 2011 IP