Does my URL effect SEO? Simply put, yes it does. However it is not a dominant factor. It use to be a dominant factor, but not anymore. Although it does have its benefits and should be taken seriously. To begin, a URL is human-readable text which has been designed to replace the way computers communicate with servers. It was created to replace the IP Addresses. So, it is a way for you to hide your IP while also giving your website an easier way to be reached and identified. A URL consists of a domain name, a path and has a following basic format:

protocol://domain-name.top-level-domain/path

Or

https://localseocompany.net

Improved User Experience

Having a well-crafted URL provides an easy understanding to both humans and computers on what the destination page will be about. For example,  homedepot.com clearly gives away what your destination page will be. Where ksifnelwd.com doesn’t really give too much information away. It is not clear what they will be seeing it they follow the link. So, having a URL that gives the user an idea of where they are heading gives the user experience a boost.

Rankings

When asking “Does my URL effect SEO?”, the only reason that comes to mind is rankings. In other words, can i get an SEO boost if I have a well Sculpted URL. Well, URLs use to be a major factor is SEO. That simply just ins’t the case anymore. However, they still do give you a minor boost. So, anyone who takes SEO seriously know that every little boost, no matter how small it may be, is very helpful. In this case, it gives a minor boost to a particular page’s relevance in the search query. Also, having your keyword in the URL can give you a little additional boost as well. URLs just aren’t a major factor anymore.

Links

Well designed URLs, when you really need to squeeze one in, can be a great anchor text. Also, this works even better if you have your keywords in you URL. So, having a well-written URL can serve as its own anchor text when you copy and paste it throughout various platforms such as forums, social media, blogs, and other online venues.

Best SEO Practices for URLs

• Keeping your URLs as simple, relevant, and accurate as possible. This is key to getting your users and the search engines to understand them. Also, URLs can include ID numbers and codes. However, best practice involves using words that people can comprehend the easiest.
• URLs should be definitive and to the point. SO, seeing an URL should give the user and the search engine a spot on idea of not only what your site is about, but what they are going to see when they arrive at their destination.
• Use hyphens to separate words when necessary. As a result, you will receive a higher readability score. URLs should never consist of any underscores, spaces, or characters meant to separate words. Hyphens is the only way to go about this.
• Use lowercase letter. Due to some cases, uppercase letters can cause a problem. For example, using localseocompany.net/Blog and localseocompany.net/blog could be seen as two completely separate identities. Therefore causing a problem that looks as if you are using duplicate content.

Common URL Related SEO Mistakes

1. Lack Of Keywords – There are two parties on this one. Where one side says it doesn’t help while the other says it does. However, you can quote us when we say that it will help with Google. It is not a lot of help, however every little SEO boost helps. It use to be a major factor, but once Google recognized how people were taking advantage of stuffing internal pages they developed an algorithm which focuses more on the homepage rather than URLs.
2. Too Many Keywords – While having your keywords in your URL, you will see a positive result, but having too many is a bad thing. Google has mentioned how keyword stuffing in your URL has caused your site to show up as “spammy” in their algorithm.Even though your URL isn’t a strong factor, it is definitely not worth receiving a negative impact.
3. Directory Structure – So, using a logical URL will not only help users and search engines find out how all your pages relate to each other, but also how to navigate through them. A additional benefit to this is that Google can pull these into a SERP and display them in place of a confusing URL when necessary.