There are so many things you need to pay attention to when you set up a blog or website. As a blogger or website owner, of course there are goals you want to achieve with your blog or website. Therefore, you need to optimize your blog or website so that it becomes an authority blog or website and each page has a good ranking in search results (SERP).
There are many ways you can improve the SEO of your blog or website. Some SEO techniques that are commonly used include creating quality content, using the right keywords, using responsive and fast loading templates and also building quality backlinks. However, many bloggers or website managers tend to forget about permalinks as a way to improve the SEO of a blog or website.
What is a Permalink?
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| What is a Permalink? |
A permalink is a permanent URL that leads to a specific page on a blog or website. A permalink is a web address that you and search engines use to open that specific page. Permalinks are used to create search engine friendly URLs. Search engines like Google pay special attention to blog or website URLs when indexing pages.
Optimizing the permalink structure is one vital way to improve the SEO of a blog or website. Permalinks should be friendly, both for search engines and users. There are two components that search engines use to determine where to index a page, namely the article title and the permalink. If you want each article to have a better chance of ranking in search results, you also need to focus on optimizing permalinks.
Simply, permalink is another name for the URL of a blog post or web page, which you enter into your web browser's address field when you want to open a particular web page. Permalink is an abbreviation for permanent link, which means this address never changes.
One of its functions is to help visitors and search engines understand the URL of a post or web page better. Permalinks that are not created correctly can disrupt the performance of your website, due to broken links and high bounce rates.
For those of you who have a blog or website, it is important to understand the basics of what permalinks are because they play an important role in SEO. In this article, apart from explaining the meaning of permalinks, we will also explain the structure of permalinks, the function of permalinks, and how to optimize them.
Why are permalinks important?
When writing blogs or managing website content in general, permalinks are a very important part and should always be on your checklist. Because, permalinks can affect website function.
Permalinks that are clear and easy to read will be more attractive and have more potential to be opened by visitors than permalinks that are long or look like spam. From the permalink alone, readers can already imagine the topics that will be discussed in your content.
Then, one of the most important functions of permalinks is to create a solid website structure and maximize the website's Search Engine Optimization (SEO). A neatly arranged page hierarchy in the website architecture will make it easier for visitors to navigate and search engine crawling.
Permalinks also serve to show that your blog posts are trustworthy and present relevant information. Because this URL is permanent, people can bookmark your content.
As you know, URLs are one of the ranking factors for Google. This means that the permalink structure will be very influential in increasing the chances of your content getting a high ranking in search results.
How do I optimize URL structure for SEO?
The following are several ways to optimize permalinks to improve website SEO:
1. Try to keep the permalink short
When you create an article in Blogger or a Content Management System (CMS) such as Joomla or WordPress, by default, the permalink uses the article title plus a hyphen (-). If the title of the article is long, the permalink will automatically be long too. Long permalinks are considered not good from an SEO perspective.
Google says it's best to use permalinks that consist of three to five words. The remaining words are considered less useful. Also avoid using numbers in permalinks because they are considered to have no search value. Numbers are rarely used or do not match the search query, however, they are good when used in article titles to attract readers' attention.
2. Use hyphens instead of underscores to separate words
You can pay attention to the permalink results when creating a new article using the default permalink which comes from the article title or you can also see the URL structure of the website page you are opening. Permalinks or permanent URLs use hyphens (-), not underscores (_) as word separators.
Likewise, if you fill in or determine the permalink manually for a new article or post, don't make the mistake of using hyphens instead of underscores. Search engines treat hyphens and underscores as two different things. Search engines consider hyphens to be spaces and underscores to be part of a word.
3. Use all lowercase letters in the permalink
If you pay attention, the default permalink on Blogger or any CMS is lowercase. It is a general rule that should be followed that permalinks use all lowercase letters. Many blogs or websites run on Linux servers. The Linux operating system is both lowercase and uppercase case sensitive. If there are two URLs, for example situs.com/blog/seo and situs.com/blog/Seo, search engines consider these two URLs to be different.
If the URL of a blog or website page is situs.com/blog/seo and then someone opens the page by typing situs.com/blog/Seo, then the page will not be found (404 Not Found). You need to redirect from the old URL to the new URL to solve this. Likewise, if both URLs refer to the same page, there will be duplication of content. Duplicate content needs to be addressed with canonical URLs so that pages are not ranked lower.
4. Use targeted keywords in the permalink
Using targeted keywords is a good way to optimize permalink structure. Keywords in permalinks help rank higher in SERPs. Because you need to keep the permalink short, determine all the targeted keywords, choose wisely and arrange them descriptively. This is also to ensure users that the keywords truly represent the page content.
5. Use static URLs, not dynamic URLs
By default, when creating a blog or website, you actually have a dynamic URL. System-wise, Blogger or some CMS have changed it to a static URL and some other CMS may need your action to configure it to generate a static URL. Dynamic URLs usually contain parameters such as &, ? or =. These dynamic URLs are generated automatically by PHP scripts or web server code.
Dynamic URLs are considered less friendly, while static URLs are easy for you and search engines to read. Static URLs also make it easier for search engine spiders to index more quickly and efficiently. If you use Blogger or a CMS that systemically uses static URLs, it has been made easier for you. If you use Joomla CMS, you need to configure it to generate static URLs (search engine friendly URLs).
6. Don't create excessive folder hierarchy in the permalink
Depending on the CMS used, if you create a blog or website with Joomla, you can create a menu structure consisting of menus, submenus, subsubmenus and so on. The bottom submenu can refer to menu item types such as articles, contacts, News Feeds, Tags and so on.
When a submenu refers to an article, the menu structure and article title will form a permalink. In Joomla, the folder hierarchy in the permalink is actually the menu hierarchy. In Joomla Permalinks, you can change the title section before the article is published, but you cannot change the menu structure.
The menu structure is added automatically as a folder hierarchy in the permalink. The longer the menu structure, the longer the permalink. A menu structure consisting of one or two levels is considered sufficient. Avoid creating a menu structure of more than two levels to avoid long permalinks.
7. Avoid repeating words in the permalink
There are still many words in the permalink that are repeated. This repeated word may be produced when you create an equivalent word in English. For example, you create an article title "SEO techniques" and then make the equivalent of the word in English and put it in brackets as "SEO techniques". If the permalink comes from the title of the article, it will be "seo-technique-seo-technique".
Likewise, when you create a menu for a Joomla blog or website, for example called "SEO" to group all articles related to SEO. The "SEO" menu will be like the "seo" folder in the permalink. When you access one of the articles in this menu, the permalink will look like "seo/seo-technique-seo-technique". The word "seo" is repeated three times.
When you repeat words in a permalink, search engines consider them to be duplicates. Duplicates will be considered as trash and then discard the duplicates. This means repeating words in the permalink does not add value. If so, you should expand the SEO reach of your blog or website using different keywords.
8. Don't change the permalink after the article is published
Sometimes we are not careful enough and only realize after the article has been published that there are keywords in the permalink that have been mistyped or keywords that have been left out and have not been included in the permalink. Changing the permalink after an article has been published is highly discouraged. You can't just change the permalink. There are techniques that need to be done so as not to have a negative impact on SEO.
Depending on the CMS used, changing the permalink for an article that has already been published can result in duplicate content, namely two or more URLs that lead to the same content or the page not being found (404 Not Found). If there is duplication of content, this duplication needs to be corrected by specifying a canonical URL and if the page is not found, you need to do a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new URL.
9. Set to use www or non-www
You can pay attention to the URL of the page that is being opened. Some bloggers choose to use www and others choose non-www. It's all preference. Since search engine indexes only allow 66 characters in permalinks, using non-www will probably help keep permalinks short.
Redirecting URLs from non-www to www or vice versa can be done easily. When you create a blog or website with CMS Joomla, Joomla has a file called htaccess.txt. You can perform a redirect (301 redirect) from non-www to www or from www to non-www using this file. You can simply put one of the two lines of code below right after the "RewriteEngine On" line of code.
Code to redirect from non-www to www:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yourdomain\.com$ [NC]RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yourdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
Code to redirect from www to non-www:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.yourdomain\.com$ [NC]RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://yourdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
In each line of code above, replace yourdomain with the domain name you own.
How to Create Effective Permalinks for SEO
The first step in creating effective permalinks is to choose the most appropriate tag structure for your website. This way, the permalink will be consistent across the website.
Here are some common structure tags you can choose from:
- Post name – suitable for websites that have blogs with specific articles or that do not need to be updated. This tag will also produce a URL that is concise and easy to remember, making it a favorite for website owners. The structure is like this: https://www.yourdomain.com/postingan-tangan-wordpress/
- Categories and names - these tag structures will create a hierarchical arrangement on your website. Suitable for websites whose content is in the form of articles with various topics and categories. Example of a permalink that uses this tag: https://www.yourdomain.com/blog/what-iare-blog/
- Date and name – more suitable for high traffic news websites that post several articles each day. This structure includes the complete date (year, month, and day), separated by slashes, and followed by the post name. Examples are as follows: https://www.yourdomain.com/2021/05/17/news-today/
- Month and name – suitable for websites that post content that will later need to be updated. With this tag, an example permalink would look like this: https://www.yourdomain.com/2021/05/statistik-website/
When writing URL slugs, there are some best SEO techniques you can follow to maximize permalinks:
- The URL slug should describe the topic of the page or post.
- Keep the slug short and easy to remember.
- Include SEO keywords or words that people will search for, which are related to the post or page.
- If the slug has more than one word, separate them with a hyphen. For example, /permalink-is/.
- It's best not to use too many stop words (general words that are not the focus of search engines), such as "which", "me", "use", "other", and "that".
Well, the tips above are only a small part of all website SEO strategies. To read other SEO tips, please read our article about WordPress website SEO techniques.
Examples of Permalinks and Their Structure
The permalink structure mainly consists of two parts, namely the website domain and page slug. An example of a good permalink is as follows:
https://www.yourdomain.com/example-website/
The explanation is like this:
Website domain name – https://www.yourdomain.com
Page slug – /example-website/
A good permalink must be clear and on target. Here are some examples of permalinks to avoid:
https://www.yourdomain.com/how-to-make-profit-online-business-for-beginners-in-2021/
https://www.yourdomain.com/article183
The two permalinks above are considered bad because they are too long and do not explain to visitors what will be discussed in the content of the post or website page.
How do I edit a post permalink?
The permalink of published articles or blog posts should be permanent and never change. Because, if the post's permalink is changed, the internal link or external link leading to that page will also be damaged.
Well, there are several exceptions that allow you to edit permalinks, for example:
- The default permalink structure of the CMS is not SEO-friendly, or does not describe the article or blog post.
- You buy or become the new owner of a website that was previously owned by someone else and needs rebranding.
- You want to change the overall orientation of the website. For example, from a blog to a website about news.
However, editing the permalink of posts that have been published must be done carefully and carefully.
Tips for Editing Permalinks Without Damaging SEO
If you finally decide to edit the permalink, make sure to do a 301 redirect. This way, search engines know that your page or blog post has redirected to the new URL.
Without a 301 redirect, your website will lose its URL and its permalinks will be broken. Potential visitors will automatically leave your website due to the broken link, which results in a high bounce rate.
Search engines will also lower your website's organic ranking because they don't want to direct visitors to error or empty pages. If this happens, you will lose traffic and income from your website.
Even worse, your website could be penalized if there are too many broken links. To overcome this problem, WordPress provides plugins that can specifically help you create 301 redirects, such as 301 Redirects, Redirection, and Yoast SEO premium.
Conclusion
Through this article, you now know that basically a permalink is a fixed link that leads to a web page or post. During the crawling process, search engines will read the URLs of pages on your website. Website visitors will also look at the permalink to find out whether your post is trustworthy and relevant.
Therefore, permalinks must be easy to find and understand for both visitors and SEOs. Because it is a permanent link, the permalink should not be changed without careful consideration. If you end up editing the permalink, don't forget to do a 301 redirect to avoid problems.
By applying the permalink optimization tips that we have provided here, we hope you can increase your website traffic and ranking in search engines. Thanks for reading.!!!