Two simple things on your website, how your web addresses look and a type of navigation called breadcrumbs, can make your site easier for both people and search engines to understand. This improves your On-Page SEO.
Clean URLs: Easy to Read Web Addresses
A clean URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is a web address that is easy to read and understand, often including words that describe the page content, rather than random letters, numbers, or confusing symbols.
Clean URL Example: https://www.yoursite.com/blog/seo-tips
Messy URL Example: https://www.yoursite.com/page?id=123&cat=4&sessid=xyz
Why Clean URLs Help SEO:
Better for Users: People can quickly understand what the page is about just by looking at the URL. This is helpful if they bookmark the page or share the link.
Small Ranking Signal: Including relevant keywords in your URL provides a minor but positive signal to search engines about the page's topic.
Easier Crawling: Simpler URLs are generally easier for search engine bots to process and follow.
Appear in Search Results: Clean URLs are often shown right in the search results snippet, giving users more context before they click.
Tips for Clean URLs:
Use words that describe the page content.
Separate words with hyphens (-).
Use lowercase letters.
Keep them relatively short.
Try to avoid unnecessary numbers or confusing parameters if possible (or make sure search engines handle parameters correctly).
Breadcrumb Navigation: Showing People Where They Are
Breadcrumb navigation is a set of links, usually near the top of a page, that show you the path from the homepage to the page you are currently viewing. It looks something like this:
Homepage > Category Name > Subcategory Name > Current Page Title
Why Breadcrumbs Help SEO:
Improves User Experience: Breadcrumbs help visitors understand where they are within your website's structure. If they land on a page from search, they can easily see its context and navigate back to broader categories. This makes it less likely they'll leave your site quickly.
Creates Internal Links: Each link in the breadcrumb trail is an internal link. These links help search engines understand the hierarchy of your site and how different pages are related. They also help pass link authority up the site structure.
Provides Structure Signals: Breadcrumbs clearly show search engines the path from a specific page back to the homepage, reinforcing your site's organization.
Can Appear in Search Results: If you use special code called structured data (specifically BreadcrumbList Schema), Google can show your breadcrumb trail directly in the search results snippet instead of the URL, which can make your listing more descriptive.
Implementing breadcrumb navigation involves adding simple internal links in the breadcrumb format on each page.
How They Work Together
Clean URLs and breadcrumbs both contribute to a clear and user-friendly website structure. Clean URLs give a hint about the page's content and location in the address bar and search results, while breadcrumbs visually show the page's place within the site hierarchy on the page itself. Both help users and search engines understand your site better, which is a win for On-Page SEO.
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