All Questions
1,902 questions
132
votes
8
answers
41k
views
How should I structure my URLs for both SEO and localization?
When I set up a site in multiple languages, how should I set up my URLs for search engines and usability?
Let's say my site is www.example.com, and I'm translating into French and Spanish. What is ...
- 8,678
121
votes
13
answers
15k
views
URLs: Should I use hyphens, underscores or plus symbols?
Which is better for search engines?
example.com/my_cool_page.html
example.com/my-cool-page.html
example.com/my+cool+page.html
delete
85
votes
10
answers
83k
views
Why are URLs case-sensitive?
My question: When URLs were first designed, why was case-sensitivity made a feature? I ask this because it seems to me (i.e., a layperson) that case-insensitivity would be preferred to prevent ...
- 1,001
84
votes
8
answers
8k
views
Should I include "www" in my website's URLs? What are the pros and cons?
What are the pros and cons of having http://www.example.com/ vs http://example.com/?
For example a problem I'm aware of is that if I use a domain without www I can't set a cookie for the current ...
- 2,585
65
votes
3
answers
33k
views
How can URLs have a dot . at the end, e.g. www.bla.de.?
I never believed URLs could have a period at the end, as in www.google.de. (which obvious is not working).
However, www.youtu.be. is working perfectly well. How did they manage that?
- 805
57
votes
3
answers
75k
views
What is the difference between a URI and a URL?
I have read these pages:
http://www.w3.org/TR/uri-clarification/
http://www.damnhandy.com/2007/11/19/uri-vs-url-whats-the-difference/
I know basic about URL, URN, and URI; but little on their ...
- 705
56
votes
4
answers
34k
views
Does it make a difference if your URL path ends in a trailing slash or not?
Does it make any difference to SEO ratings what-so-ever if your url has a trailing slash:
http://www.example.com/some/slug/paths/
as opposed to one that does not:
http://www.example.com/some/slug/...
- 1,378
45
votes
4
answers
83k
views
What does a double slash in the URL path mean?
What do double slashes often found in URLs mean?
For example:
http://www.example.com/A/B//C/
Please note: I'm not referring to the beginning right after http:.
- 1,897
31
votes
2
answers
2k
views
How to use rel='canonical' properly
I have 3 URLS that serve the same data:
www.example.com/product/foo
www.example.com/product/foo?id=1
www.example.com?product=foo
For Google's sake I want the URL www.example.com/product/foo to be ...
- 12.8k
31
votes
5
answers
4k
views
Why is it preferable to use paths with slashes instead of query-string variables in a web page URL?
Why is it preferable to use paths with slashes instead of query-string variables in a web page URL?
- 3,773
29
votes
2
answers
23k
views
Is a URL with a query string better or worse for SEO then one without one?
I want to know, is there a huge difference in terms of SEO between these URLs:
example.com/ontario/toronto/listings
or
example.com/listings.php?p=ontario&c=toronto
Will one URL rank higher ...
- 437
28
votes
4
answers
42k
views
What is the purpose of leading slash in HTML URLs?
I have noticed that some blogs posts have links using a value starting with / in the href.
For example:
<a href="/somedir/somepage.html">My Page</a>
Does the leading / mean the path is ...
- 4,625
27
votes
7
answers
12k
views
Should I use a file extension or not?
I've always wondered about this and never found a good solution.
But this question reminded me of it.
When I have a URL on my website it can be displayed and accessed any of the following ways:
...
- 834
27
votes
4
answers
7k
views
Well structured URLs vs. URLs optimized for SEO
Let’s take an example of a movie site. So a well structured set of URLs for this site can be:
Movie page - example.com/movies/the-matrix
Review for movie - example.com/movies/the-matrix/reviews
...
- 373
27
votes
5
answers
2k
views
How to correctly mark up different versions of the same document which are non-canonical
The use case is a document which has multiple versions which are all simultaneously available. For example, documentation on a product for each version of that software:
/v1/install-guide
/v2/install-...
- 371
26
votes
1
answer
25k
views
Is trailing slash automagically added on click of home page URL in browser?
I am asking this because whenever I hover over a link to a home page (e.g. http://www.example.com), I notice that a trailing slash is always added (as observed on the status bar of the browser) ...
- 1,608
26
votes
4
answers
20k
views
Are keywords in URLs good SEO or needlessly redundant?
A coworker and I are locked in a debate over the value of SEO keywords in the URL of a page. She wants to change all the filenames of the HTML pages of a fencing company so they look like residential-...
- 472
24
votes
5
answers
72k
views
Which special characters are safe to use in url?
Which special characters are safe to use in url?
- 345
24
votes
3
answers
12k
views
What does WWW do?
To be clear: I am not asking whether or not I should use www in my url, or what the pros and cons are, that topic is well covered. I also wasn't sure if this was a Stack Overflow, Server Fault, or ...
user6585
23
votes
6
answers
9k
views
Why are extensions often hidden on URLs?
Many times I see that URL extensions are hidden (e.g. .html, .php), but not all websites do this.
Why do webmasters hide the extension? Is it for security, for the URL to look cleaner, or for some ...
- 333
22
votes
3
answers
10k
views
Should my URLs be lowercase?
According to Understanding SEO Friendly URL Syntax Practices I should change
http://example.com/Hello-Dolly
To
http://example.com/hello-dolly
The reasons given are:
URLs, in general, are ...
- 322
22
votes
2
answers
2k
views
What are the friendly/rich URLs in Google Search result snippets called?
When searching content on Google, I sometimes see a neatly organized location of the document, instead of the regular URLs we see everyday.
After a solid hour of searching about this feature, I ...
- 327
21
votes
5
answers
658
views
Are there any technical issues with having an 'internationalized' domain name?
In my language there are numerous characters that are not allowed in the standard domain name. However, most of these can be easily replaced with safe equivalents (mostly dropping accents í becomes i ...
- 4,497
19
votes
4
answers
44k
views
How do I find when an URL was first indexed by Google?
How do I find out when a particular URL was first indexed by Google? I'd prefer a solution that works even for competitors' URLs that are not owned by me.
- 197
19
votes
4
answers
90k
views
What is good URI design?
How should a good URI be designed? What are the factors to consider? What are the pros and cons of the variants?
Factors that makes up a good URI
Stability over time
Short
Give the user an idea what ...
19
votes
2
answers
8k
views
Why is there are tilde (~) sign in most university URLs
My university provides a web URL and some hosting space and the URL is like http://homepages.iitb.ac.in/~pritampebam.
Almost all universities I've come across seem to use this structure where there ...
- 431
19
votes
5
answers
2k
views
Do shorter URLs benefit the pagerank and overall SEO value of pages vs. a longer categorised url showing the site structure
We are coming to the end of a long project in which we are upgrading our client's site from a custom built CMS to the latest version of Umbraco CMS whilst also making their website responsive. As part ...
- 291
18
votes
2
answers
28k
views
Can I use asterisks in URLs?
Are there any reasons I shouldn't use an asterisk (*) in a URL?
Background:
With asterisks, I could provide these nice and user friendly (or what do you think??) URLs:
example.com/some/folder/...
- 427
18
votes
1
answer
14k
views
Should query strings be included or removed from the canonical tag?
Should I remove the entire query string from URLs in the canonical meta tag?
For example this URL:
https://example.com/Turkey/Istanbul/Vehicles/Car/Peugeot?b=11&d=2
This b=11 returns a list of ...
- 337
18
votes
1
answer
6k
views
Canonical URL for a home page and trailing slashes
My home page could be potentially linked as:
http://example.com
http://example.com/
http://example.com/?ref=1
http://example.com/index.html
http://example.com/index.html?ref=2
(the same page is ...
- 2,373
17
votes
1
answer
8k
views
Should I submit https:// and http:// in Google Search Console both with and without the www?
In my site I'm redirecting everything (http://, http://www., https://) to https://www.example.com.
Google webmaster tools says: Make sure you add both "www" and "non-www" versions for your site. Also,...
- 439
17
votes
2
answers
4k
views
What is the best placement for the ID in a URL for SEO?
I would like to know what's the best location for an ID in a SEO optimized URL:
http://www.example.com/123/slug-title
http://www.example.com/slug-title-123
- 303
17
votes
3
answers
5k
views
How should websites handle hostname with trailing dot?
I read this question How can URLs have a dot . at the end, e.g. www.bla.de.? and realise that FQDN should contain a trailing . for the root label of the DNS tree:
example.com. instead of example.com
...
- 171
16
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Why do Stack Overflow question URLs have the question ID before SEO friendly 'question'?
Take for example this random question: Tool or plugin required to show out in which html files a given css selectors is used, notice that the relevant part is /questions/16999.
Now, it being possible ...
- 263
15
votes
5
answers
8k
views
Benefit of date in URL segments
I was curious about the date in URL segments, is there any SEO point of benefit? For example the following URLs:
http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/18/netflix-will-launch-in-the-netherlands-later-this-...
- 397
15
votes
3
answers
3k
views
What is the best file extension for an SEO friendly URL?
I'm working for a website to convert the website URL to an SEO friendly URL. I plan to use this:
example.com/category-name/pageid-123-page-name
I looked at some similarly categorized, highly ranked ...
- 265
14
votes
5
answers
12k
views
Can I define the letter case of a Domain Name?
I want to purchase a second level domain (on the web platform Altervista.org) with the .com extension. Since within the domain verification process I can type characters in both upper and lower case ...
- 823
14
votes
4
answers
14k
views
What should filenames and URLs of images contain for SEO benefit?
We know that good site architecture usually looks like this:
example-company.com/
example-company.com/about/
example-company.com/contact/
example-company.com/products/
example-company.com/products/...
- 1,444
14
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How to handle canonical url changes like Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow sites all have pretty urls which include the question title. In the HTML it also have canonical url for that page.
I just found out that when I change the question title, the url is ...
- 738
14
votes
1
answer
11k
views
How does Google treat hash fragment inside a canonical URL
I have seen many websites using slugs in their URL to boost SEO such as this:
http://example.com/article/1543/how-to-boost-seo/
I was thinking if I could do something like this instead:
http://...
- 1,608
14
votes
2
answers
18k
views
Is a trailing slash appropriate before URL parameters?
I understand that
http://www.example.com/product
and
http://www.example.com/product/
can actually be seen as 2 different URLs and is probably best avoided for SEO purposes, but how does this ...
- 273
13
votes
3
answers
8k
views
Will having product ID in URLs hurt SEO compared to a URL with only keywords?
Say I have a web shop with a product (optimus-prime), in a category (superheros) such that it has the URL:
www.example.com/superheroes/optimus-prime
Now I want to prepend the product ID (99) to the ...
- 233
13
votes
3
answers
36k
views
What is the solution for "Submitted URL not selected as canonical" in Google Search Console beta?
Google's new webmaster tools has a section 'Index coverage'>'Excluded'>'Submitted URL not selected as canonical'. I am getting 3 internal links in the section "Submitted URL not selected as ...
- 131
12
votes
4
answers
2k
views
What is the difference between a homepage link with or without a trailing slash?
What is the difference between these two URLs:
http://example.com/
http://example.com
Should we always add the final / or avoid it? Does it make a difference?
- 285
12
votes
2
answers
9k
views
Should I add a trailing slash to my canonical link for my home page?
I'm just working through some PHP to set up a canonical link for each page on one of my websites and I'm wondering what's the correct link for the home page:
Is it:
<link rel="canonical" ...
- 489
12
votes
1
answer
6k
views
Should I translate URL for better SEO?
I have a website about TV shows, that for default (EN) pages, it's like this:
example.com/en/show/actors
example.com/en/show/episodes
The site is localized in different languages, and I was ...
- 223
12
votes
1
answer
15k
views
Is it bad to use parentheses in a URL
Is it bad to use parentheses within a site's URLs? For example in my site, I have broken a three part article as such:
www.example.com/article-on-some-subject-(part-1-abc)
www.example.com/article-on-...
- 263
12
votes
3
answers
11k
views
Should URL paths be case sensitive?
My website's URLs are currently case-insensitive. For example, both of the following links show the exact same page:
http://example.com/about
http://example.com/About
However, taking a look at the ...
- 285
12
votes
2
answers
1k
views
URL paths and their effect on SEO
We are developing a website where there will be two distinct types of content: galleries and photos.
It makes little sense to use URL paths like /gallery/photo as some photos can appear in more than ...
- 3,683
11
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Should stop words such as "and" and "in" be omitted from URLs for SEO?
I have read before, it's recommended to don't use And, In and The in the URL, because this is will effect on the site rank.
Is it correct? if yes please guide me with the list of words that should ...
