A URL is the address of a page. Good ones are short and readable, and they follow one pattern. They are easy to get right at the start and costly to change later.
A good URL structure uses short, readable addresses made of lowercase words separated by hyphens, grouped in folders that mirror how the site is organised. Google says simple, descriptive URLs help people and search engines, and it prefers hyphens to underscores. Pick one style, apply it everywhere, and use a permanent redirect whenever an address has to change.
What URL structure means
URL structure is the pattern your page addresses follow. Every part of an address is a decision someone made, usually without noticing: the protocol, the domain, the folders in the path, the final slug and any parameters. This guide explains how to choose a pattern for a new site and how to tidy one that has grown untidy.
The table breaks an address into its parts and says what you need to decide for each.
| Part | Example | What to decide |
|---|---|---|
| Protocol | https:// | Serve every page over https |
| Domain | www.example.com or example.com | Choose one form and redirect the other to it |
| Folder | /services/ | Group pages the way visitors think about them |
| Slug | /boiler-repair/ | Use a few plain words that name the page |
| Parameter | ?colour=blue | Avoid them on pages you want found |
| Fragment | #pricing | Use it only to jump to a spot on a page |
What Google says about URLs
Google's URL structure guidance asks for addresses that are simple and readable. It says to use words rather than long ID numbers where you can, to write those words in your audience's language, and to separate them with hyphens. It does not recommend underscores, because a hyphen clearly marks a word boundary. Google also treats addresses as case sensitive, so /Pricing and /pricing count as two URLs even if your server shows the same page for both.
The same guidance asks you to keep parameters to a minimum and not to use fragments to change what a page shows. Google's SEO Starter Guide adds that parts of an address can appear in search results as a breadcrumb, which helps a searcher judge whether a result is useful before clicking.
None of this is a ranking trick. Readable addresses help visitors and make links easier to share. Google updates its documentation from time to time, so check the current URL structure page on Google Search Central before you set rules for a large site.
Should URLs include keywords?
A slug should name the page in the words a customer would use, and that means it usually contains the main keyword. Google's ecommerce guidance gives the example of a product address that spells out the product name instead of a number, and says words in an address may help it understand a page. Google does not describe keywords in a URL as a lever that raises rankings, so treat the slug as a clear label and not as a place to hide extra phrases.
A slug does not have to match the page title word for word. Google has said in its SEO office hours that an address can use some of the title's words without repeating the whole title. Shorter is easier to read and to share.
Repeating the phrase is the common mistake. An address such as /boiler-repair-boiler-repairs-boiler-repair-service-cheap/ reads as spam to a person and gains nothing. Put the main phrase in the title, the heading and the opening paragraph, as the on-page SEO checklist suggests, and keep the address short.
Choose the slug after you know what kind of page it is. A page that answers a question and a page that sells a service need different words, and the search intent guide shows how to check what searchers want before you commit to an address.
How to write a URL slug
Follow these steps for each new page, and write the result in a sheet before you publish.
- Decide the one topic of the page. If you cannot say it in a short phrase, the page may need splitting.
- Write the topic in the words a customer would type, using a few words and not a full sentence.
- Remove filler words such as "the", "and" and "of" where the address still reads clearly.
- Use lower case, with a hyphen between words.
- Leave out dates, version numbers and words that will go stale, such as "new" or "latest". A year in the slug of a guide you will refresh becomes wrong or forces a redirect.
- Avoid spaces, symbols and punctuation. If your audience reads a language that uses accents or non-Latin characters, use the words they would type; Google's documentation says non-ASCII characters should be percent-encoded, and a developer can confirm how your platform handles that.
- Check that no other page already targets the same phrase. Two pages with the same job compete with each other.
The table shows weak addresses and a better version of each.
| Weak address | What is wrong | Better |
|---|---|---|
| /page?id=4821 | An ID tells nobody what the page is | /services/web-design/ |
| /Our_Services/Web_Design | Capitals and underscores | /services/web-design/ |
| /blog/2026/10/29/how-to-choose-a-web-designer-for-your-small-business-in-2026 | Long and dated | /blog/how-to-choose-a-web-designer/ |
| /p/48291 | A product number | /shop/blue-ceramic-mug/ |
Folders, depth and hierarchy
Folders should mirror how the site is organised, such as /services/, /blog/ and /about/. A page that truly belongs under a parent sits in that parent's folder, for example /services/web-design/. The folder name then tells a visitor, and a search result that shows a breadcrumb, where the page lives.
Keep the structure shallow enough to read at a glance. Every extra level adds length and makes an address harder to type or remember. Do not flatten everything to the top level either, because a folder is useful when it groups pages that belong together. A small site often needs only one level of folders.
Do not repeat the folder name inside the slug. An address like /blog/blog-url-tips/ says the same thing twice. And do not tie URLs to the menu. Menus get reorganised, and if every address changes with them, you create redirects and broken links for no gain. The internal linking guide explains how pages are found through links, which matters more to discovery than the folder they sit in.
An online store has one extra rule. A product reachable through several categories should still have one main address, so that it does not exist as many copies. Decide the main address first and link to it consistently.
Keep case, slashes, www and https consistent
Search engines treat small differences in an address as different pages. Google's documentation says the version of a URL with a trailing slash and the version without are separate URLs, and that it is case sensitive. Pick one form of each and make every other form redirect to it.
| Variation | Example pair | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Trailing slash | /pricing and /pricing/ | Choose one, redirect the other |
| Upper and lower case | /Pricing and /pricing | Use lower case everywhere |
| With or without www | www.example.com and example.com | Choose one host and redirect |
| http and https | http://example.com and https://example.com | Redirect http to https |
Then use the chosen form in your menus, internal links, canonical tags and XML sitemap. If your pages open at several addresses but only one is listed in the sitemap, the signals disagree and you leave Google to guess.
Parameters, filters and session IDs
Parameters are the parts after a question mark, such as ?sort=price or ?colour=blue. They come from filters, sorting, search boxes, tracking codes and session IDs. Many of them show the same content in a different order, which creates many addresses for one page.
Google's guidance is to use as few parameters as you can and to drop those that do not change the content. It also advises writing them as key=value pairs joined by &, and not linking internally to temporary parameters such as session IDs or tracking codes. On a store, decide which filtered views deserve a clean address of their own, because people search for them, and which should stay as parameters that you do not link to.
Tracking parameters you add to your own links are useful for reporting. Add them to links that leave your site, such as email and ads, and not to links between your own pages.
Can you change a URL safely?
Yes, if you plan the change. Changing an address is justified when it holds an ID number, a typo, a wrong folder or an old domain. Changing it because you prefer a slightly different phrase is rarely worth the work. Every change adds a redirect, and every redirect has to be checked and kept.
- List the old and new address of every page you will change, in a sheet.
- Send each old address to its closest equivalent new page with a permanent, server-side redirect. Google's documentation recommends these (a 301 or 308 status) when a page has moved for good, and it says permanent redirects do not cause a loss of ranking power.
- Redirect straight to the final address. Google says its crawler can follow a chain of redirects, but it advises pointing to the final destination and keeping any chain short.
- Do not send many old pages to the home page. Google warns that redirecting many addresses to one unrelated page confuses visitors and may be treated as a soft 404.
- Update your internal links, canonical tags and XML sitemap to the new addresses, so that nobody has to pass through a redirect.
- Keep the redirects in place for a long time. Google's site move guidance says generally at least a year, and longer if old links still bring visitors. Check the current documentation for the wording.
- Test a sample of old addresses, then watch the Page indexing report in Search Console for errors.
A full redesign or a move to a new domain needs a wider plan than this list. If you are weighing up a large clean-up and want a second opinion on the risks, the search engine optimisation service page describes the SEO work Liftup offers.
A short checklist before you publish an address
- It names the page in words a customer would use.
- It is lower case, with hyphens between words.
- It has no dates, IDs or filler that will go stale.
- It sits in the folder where visitors would look for it.
- No other page already uses the same phrase.
- There is one version of it, with redirects from the others.
- It is in the sitemap and linked from at least one other page.
Titles and descriptions are a separate job from the address. The guide to meta titles and descriptions shows how to write the text that sits beside the address in a search result.
Questions and answers
What is a good URL structure?
A good URL structure is short and readable. It uses lowercase words separated by hyphens, folders that match how the site is organised and one preferred version of each address. Avoid ID numbers, dates and long strings of parameters in the addresses you want found.
Should URLs include keywords?
Yes, in the plain sense that the slug should name the page in words a customer would use. Google says words in an address may help it understand a page, but it does not present a keyword in the URL as a way to rank higher. Repeating the phrase makes the address worse.
Can I change a URL safely?
You can, if you redirect the old address to its closest new page with a permanent, server-side redirect. Update internal links, canonical tags and the sitemap to the new address, avoid redirect chains and keep the redirect for a long time. Do not change addresses without a good reason.
Should I use hyphens or underscores in a URL?
Use hyphens. Google recommends them to separate words and does not recommend underscores, because a hyphen clearly marks where one word ends and the next begins. If you already use underscores, changing them is only worth doing if you plan the redirects.
Does a trailing slash matter?
It matters only for consistency. Google treats an address with a trailing slash and one without as separate URLs, so pick one form, redirect the other to it and use the chosen form in your links and sitemap. Either form is acceptable.
Should I put the date in a blog post URL?
Usually not. A date in the address makes a page look old, and if you update the post later the address either stays out of date or has to be redirected. A short slug that names the topic lasts longer.