0498 70 98 60SEO-Friendly URLs: Best Practices for Business Sites, Stores, and Blogs
Should you remove stop words from your URLs? Keep categories or drop them? Add dates to blog posts? These questions come up on every website project, and the answers depend on the kind of site you run. URLs are a modest ranking factor, but SEO-friendly URLs make your site easier to crawl, easier to understand, and more clickable. Here’s what Google recommends and how to apply it.
The Basics of SEO-Friendly URLs
Google’s URL structure best practices boil down to a few rules:
- Use readable words, not IDs.
/blue-running-shoes/beats/index.php?id=7263. - Separate words with hyphens. Google recommends hyphens over underscores, and words run together (
/bluerunningshoes/) are hard to read. - Pick one case and stick to it. Google treats URLs as case-sensitive, so
/Shoes/and/shoes/are different URLs. Lowercase everywhere is the safest choice. - Keep parameters under control. Remove parameters that don’t change the content (session IDs, tracking tags) and use standard
?key=value&key2=valuesyntax for those that do. - Don’t rely on fragments. Google generally ignores everything after
#, so don’t use fragments to load different content.
Beyond that, be concise. Drop filler words when they don’t add meaning, and stop before the URL turns into a sentence. A good slug usually holds the page’s main keyword and little else: /seo-friendly-urls/ rather than /how-to-make-your-urls-more-seo-friendly-in-2026/.
URLs for a Business or Service Website
Most business sites have a few dozen pages. Keep URLs short and organized by what you sell:
example.com/contact/example.com/services/example.com/services/commercial-roof-repair/example.com/locations/dallas/
A shallow, logical structure mirrors your navigation and helps both visitors and Google understand how pages relate.
URLs for an Online Store
Ecommerce platforms usually offer two patterns for product URLs:
example.com/product-name/example.com/category/product-name/
Including the category gives visitors context (/audio-video/oled-curved-4k-tv/), but it creates problems when a product belongs to several categories, because the same product can end up at multiple URLs. If your platform does that, choose one canonical URL per product and add a rel="canonical" tag pointing to it. Many stores keep products at a flat /products/product-name/ and use categories only for category pages.
Filters and sorting (color, size, price) create another layer of parameters. Let Google crawl the filter combinations that match real searches, such as “black leather boots,” and keep the rest out of the index with canonicals or by not linking them crawlably. Our ecommerce SEO guide covers this in more detail.
URLs for a Blog or News Site
- Single-topic blog:
example.com/post-title/keeps things simple. - Multi-topic blog:
example.com/category/post-title/can help readers, but if you ever reorganize categories, every URL changes. Many sites avoid categories in post URLs for that reason. - Dates: useful for genuinely time-bound news, but for evergreen guides, a date in the URL makes the content look stale and forces a URL change if you update it. Leave dates out unless you’re a news publisher.
The old rule that news URLs need a unique number for Google News was dropped by Google years ago.
Changing URLs Without Losing Traffic
Changing a URL resets some of its history, so don’t rename slugs for small gains. When you do need to change them, during a redesign, a platform migration, or a restructure:
- Map every old URL to its closest new equivalent.
- Set up permanent (301) redirects, page to page, not everything to the homepage.
- Update internal links, canonical tags, and your XML sitemap to point to the new URLs.
- Keep redirects in place for at least a year; Google has said it needs time to see and process them.
- Monitor Search Console’s Page indexing report and 404 errors after launch.
Our article on website redesign SEO walks through the full process.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Keywords in URLs Help SEO?
A little. URLs are a minor ranking signal, but a descriptive slug helps users understand the page and can show up in search results. Don’t stuff multiple keywords into a URL.
Should I Use Hyphens or Underscores in URLs?
Hyphens. Google recommends them because they clearly separate words.
Should I Remove Stop Words Like “and” or “the” From Slugs?
Usually, yes, as long as the URL still makes sense. Keep them if removing them changes the meaning.
Is It Bad to Change a URL?
Not if you do it properly with 301 redirects and updated internal links. Avoid changing URLs without a clear reason.
Planning a New Site or a URL Cleanup?
We plan URL structures and redirect maps as part of our web design and SEO services. Référenceur is a European agency (Belgium and Luxembourg) that works with U.S. businesses remotely, through video calls, shared screens, and monthly reporting. Request a free assessment.