The key to web rankings begins with Google indexing. Without a good URL structure, you may face serious difficulties with being crawled and indexed. A good URL is, however, not only for search engine indexability. It makes things easier for both users and search engines.
Yes, they help crawlers index faster. They also help users understand where they are. And when someone copies that link into a Slack message, email, or browser bar, it actually looks trustworthy.
At Justwords Digital, we’ve been helping marketing teams and agency owners simplify their SEO frameworks for over 15 years (since 2010). If you’re wondering what the modern SEO URL best practices are, this post will break down 11 timeless, Google-friendly rules that matter in 2025.
How to Create SEO-Friendly URL Structures in 2025
Follow these best practices to improve visibility and keep your URLs search-optimized:
1. Keep URLs Short and Simple
Your URLs should be short enough to read, easy enough to remember, and clean enough to share.
Search engines don’t need long URLs with ten extra words to understand your page. In fact, long, cluttered URLs often signal confusion.
Let’s say you run an SEO agency in Chicago. You have two options for your landing page:
- Good: agencyname.com/seo-services
- Bad: agencyname.com/services/search-engine-optimization-professional-consulting-2025-chicago-il
See the difference?
The first one is straightforward and skimmable. The second one looks like a keyword salad. It also gets cut off in search results and social previews, which kills user trust.
So, try to keep your URLs under 60 characters where possible. This keeps them readable on all devices and avoids truncation in search listings. If you’re using a CMS like WordPress, manually edit the URL slug instead of letting it auto-generate from the title.
2. Stick to Lowercase Letters
This is not just for aesthetics but also to prevent problems down the line.
Some web servers are case-sensitive. So yourdomain.com/Services and yourdomain.com/services could technically be seen as two different pages. That leads to issues like duplicate content, broken links, and wasted crawl budget.
And if you’ve ever had a developer yell across the room about a 404 error “because the client capitalized a URL in a newsletter,” you’ll understand the pain.
Just make it a rule:
Every URL should be lowercase. No exceptions.
3. Use Hyphens to Separate Words
Underscores are for spreadsheets and web usernames. Hyphens are for humans.
Let’s look at this quickly:
- Good: justwordsdigital.com/seo-url-structure
- Bad: justwordsdigital.com/seo_url_structure
Google treats hyphens as separators. But underscores? Not always. So while you might think your keywords are clear, search engines may be interpreting them as one mashed-together word.
Plus, visually, hyphens look cleaner. They’re easier to scan, especially in longer slugs like blog posts. If your blog title is “How to Optimize Your Website for Mobile in 2025,” your slug should be:
/optimize-website-for-mobile-2025
Not:
/how_to_optimize_your_website_for_mobile_in_2025.
Nobody wants to read that.
4. Use Relevant Keywords but Naturally
Yes, keywords still matter. But jamming your URL with keywords is not clever; it’s lazy.
Let’s say you’re publishing a guide about content marketing strategies. Your instinct might be to cram every keyword variation into the slug:
Bad: /content-marketing-strategies-content-marketing-2025-b2b-tips
It’s excessive and maybe even desperate.
Instead, go with something clear and to the point:
Good: /content-marketing-strategy
This still hits the mark. It tells Google and your reader what to expect. It also looks clean in search results, which can help improve click-throughs.
Remember: your SEO-friendly URL should match the intent of the page, not just the keyword list from a tool. If the article is about B2B tactics for SaaS marketers, and your title is long, pick out the most relevant two or three words and build your slug from that.
Pro tip: Avoid repeating keywords already used in your domain. For example, if your site is justwordsdigital.com, don’t write slugs like /justwords-digital-seo-services. It’s redundant and wastes space.
5. Create a Logical URL Structure
Your URLs should show where the page lives and why it matters.
If your site is a house, your URLs are the room labels. They should reflect the architecture clearly. Think of it like this:
- Homepage: justwordsdigital.com
- Services page: justwordsdigital.com/services
- SEO services page: justwordsdigital.com/services/seo
- Technical SEO audit page: justwordsdigital.com/services/seo/technical-audit
This structure makes it obvious where each page fits in the bigger picture. It also helps with breadcrumb navigation, internal linking, and future-proofing your SEO.
Let your URLs mirror your site structure. Organize them into categories and subcategories.
If you’re running an SEO agency blog with multiple verticals, this could look like:
justwords.com/blog/seo/seo-url-best-practices
This hierarchy helps users understand where they are and how to get back. It also signals to Google how your content is grouped. Just avoid going too deep. Three levels are usually excessive. Two to three levels are ideal.
6. Redirect Old URLs Properly to Avoid Ranking Losses
Whenever you update URLs, always set up 301 redirects to the new version. No exceptions.
If you’ve ever deleted a blog post or restructured a site, you’ve probably seen this: Google still shows the old URL in search, and users land on a 404 page. That’s bad for SEO, bad for UX, and often bad for business.
A 301 redirect tells both users and search engines, “Hey, this page has permanently moved. Here’s the new location.” It also transfers most of the page’s ranking power (link equity) to the new destination.
Use tools like Screaming Frog or Google Search Console to identify outdated URLs still being visited or linked externally. Then map them to their updated versions and redirect accordingly. Don’t use JavaScript redirects or meta refresh tags for this; it needs to be server-side.
SEO URL best practices always include cleaning up after yourself. When you restructure, carry the traffic and rankings forward.
7. Avoid Stop Words That Add Clutter
Words like “and,” “the,” or “of” don’t usually help users or search engines. Drop them when writing URL slugs.
Let’s say you’re publishing a post titled “White Label website design & Development Services”. You don’t need the filler word “and” in the URL.
Here’s the bloated version:
https://justwordsdigital.com/white-label-services/white-label-and-web-design-services/
Now, here’s the better, tighter version:
https://justwordsdigital.com/white-label-services/white-label-web-design-services/
See how clean that is? The meaning stays intact, and the URL becomes more readable and shareable. It’s also easier to remember, especially on platforms where links get cut off.
Of course, don’t get robotic. If removing a word breaks the meaning or readability, keep it. But nine times out of ten, those little words just eat up space.
This tactic aligns with modern SEO links best practices, where clarity and simplicity trump keyword stuffing.
8. Use Subfolders, Not Subdomains
If your blog lives at blog.yourdomain.com, you might be hurting your SEO potential.
Google treats subdomains as separate properties. That means your main site (yourdomain.com) and your blog (blog.yourdomain.com) don’t share SEO authority by default.
But if your blog lives in a subfolder (yourdomain.com/blog), all that content power flows directly into your main domain. The same applies to help docs, press rooms, or service directories.
Stick to subfolders for all supporting content unless you have a technical reason not to. This strengthens your domain authority and makes your site architecture easier to manage.
If you’re working with developers or clients who insist on using subdomains, explain the difference in terms of SEO growth.
If you’re building a future-proof SEO friendly URL, subfolders win every time.
9. Use Geographic Terms to Support Local SEO
If you’re targeting a specific location, include that place name in your URL. But do it naturally.
Let’s say your agency works with HVAC contractors in Austin. A service page slug like /hvac-seo-austin will perform better for local queries than just /hvac-seo.
It reinforces the local relevance to both Google and your visitors. That’s important when you’re going after competitive “near me” terms or local service intent.
However, don’t duplicate the same page across 10 suburbs by just swapping the suburb name. Google sees through that tactic and may treat it as doorway content.
Instead, create genuinely unique local landing pages where needed, and support them with location-specific keywords, content, and URLs. It’s a smart way to align your SEO URL structure with your content strategy.
10. Avoid Keyword Stuffing at All Costs
Yes, keywords belong in URLs, but not like a broken record.
Repeating the same phrase over and over makes your site look like it’s stuck in 2009. Here’s what that might look like: /seo-url-structure-seo-url-best-practices-seo-url-links
That kind of slug is ugly, hurts click-through rates, and signals spam to search engines. Instead, use the primary keyword once and move on.
A clean version might be: /seo-url-structure-guide
That’s it. One keyword. Cleanly placed. Matched to the page intent.
Remember, a SEO-friendly URL should help your reader guess what’s on the page before they click. If it looks desperate, they’ll hesitate, or worse, bounce.
The rule is to keep keywords relevant, but subtle. Let your title tag and H1 do the heavy lifting.
11. Build a Site Architecture That Supports Crawlability
Your site structure determines how fast (and how well) Google understands your content.
Think of your website as a library. The home page is the lobby. The category pages are the rooms. The articles or service pages are the bookshelves inside.
If your site has a flat structure (where every page links from the home page), it gets messy fast. If your site is too deep (maybe five clicks to reach a blog post), crawlers may never reach all your content.
A solid URL structure for SEO uses categories and subcategories in a logical way. Example:
- /services
- /services/seo
- /services/seo/url-structure
That breadcrumb-like format makes it easy to navigate, helps users understand where they are, and improves internal linking. It also supports your topical authority and helps Google connect the dots between related content.
If you’re working on a sitemap overhaul or redesign, take the time to map content by topic clusters. Group related content under logical folders and categories. This is foundational to scalable, high-impact SEO.
Bonus: Avoid Junk Parameters (and Always Use HTTPS)
Dynamic URLs are a tracking nightmare
You’ve probably seen URLs like this before: /product?id=12345&type=sale&ref=abc&utm=summerpromo
These confuse users and create indexing issues for crawlers. Google might treat each variation as a separate page unless you’ve correctly set canonical tags. Worse, your analytics team gets duplicate data that’s a pain to untangle.
If you need parameters for tracking, use them in campaign links only, not in core site architecture.
HTTPS isn’t negotiable anymore
This is basic, but still missed: if your URLs don’t start with https://, Google will deprioritize your site. And users might bounce as soon as they see the “Not Secure” warning.
According to Google’s own report, over 85% of Chrome traffic now loads over HTTPS, up from 67%. If your site isn’t part of that stat, you’re behind the curve.
Wrap-up: Build URLs That Work for Both People and Bots
The best SEO strategies are the ones where humans come first. Clean, readable, short SEO-friendly URLs make it easier to navigate, easier to rank, and easier to trust.
If you’re cleaning up a messy archive or planning a fresh site build, these SEO URL best practices are the theory and practical for low-effort improvements that can have measurable results.
Start with your most visited pages. Audit the slugs, shorten them, make them readable, and most importantly, make them make sense.
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