TexasDesign.com

There is a right way and a wrong way to create a website’s overall URL architecture in terms of SEO. Though not part of the “design” itself, designers must often establish the linking structure when tasked to create the individual pages of the website, filling them with existing content or design elements.

Take a look at the following two URL’s:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/gaming/

http://www.orangeshag.com/?page=10&cPath=21

Both of these pages sell t-shirts, but judging from the URL only, you can only guess that the first one sells t-shirts.

You should be able to read a URL backward and know exactly what each page contains. Search engines can only read text, so this is critical. If you were to read the first URL backward, you could discern that this page offers “gaming tshirts,” and it absolutely does.

Though the second site is beautifully designed, the context of the page is completely ambiguous from the URL. Not surprisingly, I found the second example from a paid advertisement, not from an organic web search.)

This type of linking structure has been coined “siloing” by SEO guru Bruce Clay.

Some other points to mention in terms of creating SEO friendly URL’s

• Keep categories (such as “gaming” and “tshirts”) short, sweet, and descriptive
• Use dashes instead of underscores
• Use static URL’s versus dynamic

About the Author
David Williams is an Ethical Search Engine Optimization expert located in Raleigh, North Carolina. He works with people all over the United States marketing their websites. David has also been a public speaker since 2000.