Rethinking Your Permalink Structure

When you talk about your day, you want to say you’ve done something important.  Today is that kind of a day; you’re going to take a look at your permalink structure.  It’s not glamorous or sexy, but it is an SEO technique that will help you look a little better in the SERPs.  What is a permalink, and what type of structure is best?

A permalink is just a permanent link to a blog post or forum that is no longer front page news; when it goes into the archives, it doesn’t disappear. The permalink gives it a name by way of a permanent URL.  Your older posts may be off the front page of your site, but they don’t have to be forgotten, and they don’t have to molder. They can earn their keep by boosting SEO efforts.

If you do not customize your permalink, your blog platform will use a default. The problem with this is that it may not contain the information a user needs to determine what the post is about; further, it doesn’t give Google that information. You are missing the opportunity to showcase relevant keywords.  This is an example of a customized permalink:

http://www.seofuel.co.uk/664/keyword-research/tips-for-optimising-your-url/

It clearly states the title of the piece, allowing search engines to properly index the post and users to decide whether or not they want to click through.

The exact “how” depends on the website or blog platform that you use, but here are some tips to help you:

• The preferred structure of SEOs tends to be:  http://yourdomainname.com/category/post-title.”
• Most SEOs opt to use lowercase letters throughout the permalink.
• Do not put in extraneous characters and leave out small words like the, and, a, or, etc.
• Keep it short; if it wouldn’t fit in a tweet, don’t use it for your permalink.
• If it is relevant to your post, add “what is,” or “how to” because these are often used in real search queries.

It is important that blog posts and other content have optimised permalinks, especially with the incredibly widespread use of social media and sites like Pinterest. Users are not going to click on a long, run-on URL that does not give them any real information; nor is Google going to be amenable to ranking you high.  Keep it short, direct, and as always, to the point!