URLs are one of the most underrated ranking factors in SEO. Most people stop thinking about them once the website launches — and that is precisely the problem. Over ten years of technical SEO work at LeapJet, I have seen hundreds of websites lose traffic due to messy, illogical, or misconfigured URL structures. This guide gives you everything you need to get your URLs right from the start, or clean up existing chaos.
Why URLs actually matter for SEO
Google has repeatedly confirmed that URLs are a ranking factor — albeit a relatively minor one. But that is not the whole story. URLs affect crawlability, user experience, click-through rate in search results, and how easily other websites link to you. The combined effect of these factors is far greater than most people realize.
A study from Backlinko found that short URLs rank an average of 10 positions higher than long URLs in Google search results (Backlinko, "Search Engine Ranking Factors Study," 2024). That is correlation, not causation — but it reflects that well-structured websites generally have shorter, cleaner URLs.
URLs also function as micro-content. When a user sees the web address in search results, in the browser, or in a shared link, it instantly communicates what the page is about. A URL like /services/seo/technical-audit tells far more than /page?id=4827&cat=3. See our SEO guide for the complete overview of ranking factors.
URL structure best practices
A good URL is short, descriptive, human-readable, and machine-friendly. That sounds simple, but a surprising number of websites break these fundamental rules. Here are the principles that work.
Keep URLs under 60 characters when possible. Use only lowercase letters — uppercase creates problems because servers may treat /About-Us and /about-us as two different pages. Use hyphens (-) as word separators, never underscores (_). Google treats hyphens as spaces while underscores are ignored.
Remove unnecessary stop words like "and," "in," "for," and "the" from URLs. Instead of /how-you-can-improve-seo-for-your-business, use /improve-seo-business. But be careful — sometimes stop words make the URL more readable, and in those cases they should be kept.
- Use only lowercase letters — avoid mixing cases
- Hyphens as word separators, never underscores
- Keep URLs short and descriptive (under 60 characters)
- Remove unnecessary parameters and session IDs
- Use a logical folder structure reflecting information architecture
Keyword placement in URLs
Yes, keywords in the URL have a positive effect on rankings. Google has confirmed this, and it is consistent with what we see in practice. But balance is important — keyword stuffing in URLs does more harm than good.
Place the primary keyword naturally in the URL, preferably as close to the root as possible. For an article about technical SEO, /blog/technical-seo-guide is better than /blog/articles/2026/04/complete-technical-seo-guide-for-beginners. Depth in folder structure signals importance — pages closer to the root are perceived as more important.
A common question is whether you should change the URL when you update content. The answer is almost always no. The existing URL has already accumulated authority through links and history. Changing it means starting from zero, even with a redirect. Read more in our technical SEO checklist.
Subfolder vs subdomain: What should you choose?
This debate has raged in the SEO community for over a decade. Should your blog live at blog.example.com (subdomain) or example.com/blog (subfolder)? Short answer: subfolder wins in the vast majority of cases.
Subdomains are treated by Google as separate entities, meaning the authority you build on the subdomain does not necessarily transfer to the main domain. A study from Moz showed that websites migrating from subdomain to subfolder saw an average 20-30 percent increase in organic traffic (Moz, "Subdomain vs Subfolder Study," 2023).
There are exceptions. Large organizations with entirely separate products (like Google itself with support.google.com) may benefit from subdomains. But for most businesses — especially in the Nordic market — subfolders are the right choice. We see this consistently with LeapJet clients who have made the migration.
URL parameters and SEO problems
URL parameters are the silent SEO killer. Every time your website generates URLs with ?sort=price&color=red&page=3, you risk Google crawling hundreds or thousands of nearly identical pages. This is called crawl waste, and it is a real problem for medium and large websites.
For e-commerce sites, this is especially critical. A category page with ten filtering options and sorting choices can generate thousands of URL combinations, all showing nearly identical content. The solution is a combination of canonical tags, robots.txt blocking, and Google Search Console parameter settings.
Do you have an e-commerce site or large website with parameter problems? LeapJet conducts technical SEO audits that identify and fix exactly this type of issue. Get in touch for a free review. Also read our canonical URL guide for deeper insight.
URL migration and redirects: 301 vs 302
URL migration is one of the riskiest SEO projects you can undertake. Done right, you preserve most of the traffic. Done wrong, you can lose 50 percent or more of organic visibility overnight.
Always use 301 redirects (permanent) when permanently changing URLs. A 301 transfers between 90 and 99 percent of link equity to the new URL according to Google (Google Search Central, "301 Redirects," 2024). A 302 redirect (temporary) should only be used when you actually plan to revert to the original URL — for example during A/B testing or maintenance.
The most common mistake we see is redirect chains: page A points to page B, which points to page C, which points to page D. Each redirect in the chain dilutes link equity and slows loading. Maximum one redirect is the rule. Use tools like Screaming Frog to map existing redirect chains.
Trailing slashes: Consistency is key
Should your URLs end with / or without? Technically, Google treats example.com/services and example.com/services/ as two different URLs. That means if you are inconsistent, you can end up with duplicate content.
Choose one variant and stick to it consistently across the entire website. Most modern CMSes and frameworks (including Next.js and WordPress) have settings for this. In Next.js, you can configure trailingSlash: true or false in next.config.js.
Verify that all internal links, sitemap, and canonical tags use the same variant. Use a 301 redirect from the wrong variant to the correct one. It sounds pedantic, but we have seen cases where inconsistent trailing slashes led Google to index both variants, splitting link equity between them.
Multilingual URL considerations
For businesses with an international audience, URL structure for multiple languages is an important decision. The three main options are: subfolders (/en/services), subdomains (en.example.com), or separate domains (example.com).
Subfolders are what we recommend for most businesses. They consolidate all authority under one domain, are easier to manage, and require only one Google Search Console property. Combine this with correct hreflang tags that tell Google which language version to show in which markets. Read our international SEO guide for complete implementation guidance.
A common question is whether URL slugs should be translated. The answer is yes — /en/services/seo-audit is better than /en/tjenester/seo-revisjon for English-speaking users. It improves both user experience and click-through rate in search results. At LeapJet, we implement multilingual URL strategies as part of all international SEO projects. Contact us to discuss your international strategy.
The most common URL mistakes we see
After auditing hundreds of websites, I can list the mistakes we see most often — and that cost the most traffic.
Dynamic URLs without rewriting is number one. URLs like /product.php?id=4827&cat=seo are unreadable, contain no keywords, and give zero information to the user. Number two is dates in URLs for evergreen content — /2024/01/seo-tips makes the content look outdated even if you update it regularly.
Other common mistakes include using uppercase letters, special characters in URLs, excessive folder structure (/company/services/digital/marketing/seo), and missing redirects after pages are deleted or moved. See our glossary for explanations of all technical terms.
- Dynamic URLs without rewriting (/page?id=123)
- Dates in URLs for evergreen content
- Mixing uppercase and lowercase letters
- Special characters in URLs
- Excessive folder structure (too many levels)
- Missing redirects when deleting or moving pages
- Inconsistent trailing slashes
URL audit checklist
Use this checklist to audit the URL structure of your website. Go through each point systematically — it takes time, but it is one of the most cost-effective SEO measures you can take.
Start by crawling the entire website with Screaming Frog or Sitebulb. Export all URLs and analyze them for length, structure, keywords, parameters, and redirects. Identify duplicates, redirect chains, and broken links.
Prioritize changes based on traffic value. Fix the URLs that already have traffic and links first — they have the most to lose. For new pages, implement correct URL structure from the start. It is always cheaper to do it right the first time. Read our technical SEO checklist for a complete overview of all technical SEO measures.
- Crawl the website and export all URLs
- Verify all URLs use lowercase and hyphens
- Check that primary keywords are included naturally
- Identify and fix redirect chains (max 1 redirect)
- Check trailing slash consistency
- Verify canonical tags match actual URLs
- Remove or consolidate parameter URLs
- Check hreflang implementation for multilingual pages
- Ensure sitemap contains only canonical URLs
- Monitor 404 errors in Google Search Console weekly
Sources
Backlinko, "Search Engine Ranking Factors Study," 2024. Moz, "Subdomain vs Subfolder Study," 2023. Google Search Central, "301 Redirects," 2024. Google Search Central, "URL Structure Best Practices," 2025. Ahrefs, "URL Length and SEO Correlation Study," 2024.
