URL structure is an important on-page SEO factor, so I thought I’d write a quick post covering some useful guidelines to keep in mind when designing your website.

Let’s take a look at a typical small business website. While this may not be the case for every business, many sites often have the following pages in common:

• Homepage
• Services/Products Page
• Testimonials Page
• About Us Page
• Contact Us Page

Using the pages above, here’s an example of how to maximize the SEO impact of your URLs.

Homepage (www.example.com)
When choosing your domain name, try and include your primary keyword somewhere in the name. A good strategy for this is creating a keyword + generic domain name. For example, if you’re targeting the keyword flowers, you might go for flowershub.com, starflowers.com, fastflowers.com etc.

Services/Products Page (www.example.com/[keyword])
On the page which lists your services or products, use another major keyword as the directory for this page. Using the example above, you might want to create the following pages:

• /flower-delivery
• /flower-types

Testimonials Page (www.example.com/[keyword]-testimonials)
The testimonials page is another chance for you to include one of your important keywords. Try using the format /[keyword]-testimonials, where keyword represents your business type or industry. Some examples might be:

• /florist-testimonials
• /painting-testimonials
• /cleaning-testimonials

About Us Page (www.example.com/about-[business name])
The about us page is a chance to make sure your website ranks strongly when customers search for your business name. Using the directory format /about-[businessname] with the business name in Meta tags and body content a good way to achieve this.

Contact Us Page (www.example.com/contact-us)
For the contact us page I’d recommend sticking with a simple /contact-us format which is standard across most sites and is easy for customers to remember.

While URL structure is no magic bullet for SEO, following the guidelines above is a good way to build a solid foundation. If you’ve got any other URL advice, let us know in the comments below!

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• Dominate Searches for Your Company Using Social Media Profiles
• Hidden Text Can Get Your Website Banned
• Boost Your Sales with Testimonials
• 4 Top Ways to Ensure You Get Sales From Your Website
• Link Building Tip: Using Testimonials to Get Free Backlinks