Increasing search engine visibility with optimized permalinks & slugs
For your blog or business website to gain search engine visibility and traffic, certain things need to be put in place. Some of those things are optimized titles, descriptions, and permalinks (or a slug as some people call it interchangeably). I’ll explain the difference later on.
Have you ever visited a website and discovered that the title of the page says a different thing from the link you clicked on? Quite misleading right? Some people may angrily leave the website immediately.
Remember how good you felt when you search for products or answers on-line and you find a result matching 90% of your search term and the content giving you some of (if not exactly) what you want. That’s one way a website increases visibility, trust, sales, and referrals too.
What is a permalink?
A permalink just like the name is the permanent link to a blog post, page or other pieces of content on your website. It denotes the full URL (Universal Resource Locator) of such content, page or blog post, example:
or
It is usually followed by what is called a ‘slug’.
What is a Slug?
A slug, on the other hand, is that part of the URL that comes after the domain name. It’s that part of the URL that explains the page’s content. example:
The ‘web-design’ part of the above URL is called the slug.
Importance of optimized (SEO-friendly) Permalinks
Permalinks are very important parts of your website as both search engines and visitors use these URLs to index and visit your site.
By default, WordPress uses a permalink structure that’s not SEO-friendly. These look something like this:
This is why you need to optimize the title of the page or content and permalink to increase search engine visibility.
They need to be something very descriptive and engaging at first sight. It is supposed to portray its original intent and not be misleading. For example:
From the above snapshot, you can see the title of the webpage and description showing what the business does at first glance. This helps Google show your webpage to people who are looking for the services you offer.
Steps to creating SEO friendly URLs (Permalink and slug)
Firstly, it should be as short as possible, while being descriptive. Long URLs aren’t bad, but using a short one makes it easy for Google and your users to focus, especially when they need to have it at their fingertips.
Secondly, avoid using words like ‘a’, ‘the’, ‘for’, and verbs too when the other words can explain the intent.
Thirdly, avoid using an underscore, ‘_’. It connects the words and makes them one word. Instead, make use of hyphens or dashes, ‘-’.
Fourthly, if your site is a blog or news website, there are some ways to construct your URL. Example:
- For a blog, the domain name, followed by the post title is the best structure.
2. For a news website or some other websites that you categorize your posts, the category name can come, before the post title:
Lastly, change the slug of your webpage to include the focus keyword(s). It’s one of the indicators Google uses to determine what a page is about.
Setting up the permalink structure for WordPress posts
If your website is running on WordPress, the default permalink format isn't SEO friendly. For a better SEO friendly permalink, you need to take the following steps:
Step 1: Log in to your WordPress dashboard
Step 2: Click the ‘Settings’ menu and choose ‘Permalinks’
Step 3: Under the common settings, choose ‘post name’ and that's it.
Summary
All businesses need search engine visibility, traffic, and referrals to at some point generate revenue and increase their customer base. These things aren't easy to come by if you aren’t following the right steps. With this post am sure you've learnt the impact of a good URL (permalink and slug) on your website. Follow these steps if you haven't and be guaranteed of a well-optimized, SEO-friendly website.
