Optimizing Permalink Structures To Improve Blog SEO

Permalink Optimization

There are several ways to improve the SEO of your blog. Some SEO techniques that are commonly used, for example, creating High-quality content, using the right keywords, using responsive templates and fast loading, and also building quality backlinks. However, some of the bloggers forget to optimize permalink as a way to improve the SEO of the webpage.

Table of Contents

• Optimizing Permalink Structures
• Try to keep the permalink short
• Use hyphens instead of underscores
• Use all lowercase letters on the permalink
• Use targeted keywords on the permalink
• Don't change the permalink after the post is published.
• Use of www or non-www.

A permalink is a permanent URL that leads to a particular page from a blog. A permalink is a web address that you and search engines use to open that specific page. Permalink is used to build search engine friendly URLs.

Optimizing Permalink Structures to Improve Website SEO

Optimizing the permalink structure is one of the most powerful techniques to improve the SEO of a blog or website. Permalink should be search engines and users friendly. There are two-element that search engines use to decide where to index a page:
1. title of the post
2. permalink.
If you want each post of your blog to get a chance to better ranking in search results, you need to more focus on optimizing the permalink.
So here are some proven ways to optimize permalinks to improve website SEO:

1. Try to keep the permalink short.

When you create a Post on Blogger, by default, the permalink uses the post title. If the title of the post is long, then the permalink will be automatically also long. A long permalink is considered not good for SEO.

according to the Google algorithm, you should use three to five words in the permalink. Also, avoid using numbers in the permalink because there is no search value in search engines. Numbers are rarely used in the permalink, but numbers are helpful when used in Post titles to attract the reader's attention.

2. Use hyphens instead of underscores to separate words.

When you create permalinks you should always use hyphens (-) as word separators, avoid to use of underscore (_).
Because Search engines treat hyphens and Underscore as two different things.
In URL, the search engine considers hyphens as spaces and Underscore as part of the word.

3. Use all lowercase letters on the permalink.

If you see, a default permalink on Blogger or any CMS will be in lowercase.
The most important thing that for SEO friendly URL all the words of the permalink must be in lowercase. for example, If there are two URLs,  Yoursite.com/blog/seo and Yoursite.com/blog/Seo, the search engine considers these two URLs to be different.
If the URL of the webpage is Yoursite.com/blog/seo, someone opens the page by typing Yoursite.com/blog/Seo, then the page will not be found (404 Not Found).

4. Use targeted keywords on the permalink.

Using targeted keywords is the best technique to optimize the permalink structure. The keywords in the permalink help rank higher position in the SERP. and you need to keep the permalink short, find out all the targeted keywords, select and arrange them descriptively, to ensure the user's that the keywords truly represent the content of the page.

5. Avoid repeating words on the permalink.

Sometimes, the repeated word is found in the permalink. This repeated word might be caused when you create title an English equivalent.
For example, you make the title of the post "SEO techniques" and then similar words put in brackets to "SEO techniques (SEO technique)".
If the permalink comes from the title of the post, it will become "seo-seo-technique".
When you repeat the words in the permalink, the search engine considers those words as duplicates. This means repeating words in the permalink is not good for SEO.

6. Don't change the permalink after the post is published.

Sometimes we are not careful and only realize after the post has been published that there are keywords in the permalink that are mistyped or keywords that are left behind and have not been included in the permalink. Changing permalink after the post is published is not recommended. because it has a negative impact on SEO.

7. Use of www or non-www.

You can notice the URL of the page being opened. Some bloggers prefer to use www and some non-www. Those are preferences. Because the search engine index only allows 66 characters in the permalink, using non-www might help keep the permalink short.