Product URLs: How to Create SEO-Friendly Links

Every little detail of an online store must be crafted efficiently to ensure its visibility in the digital space. As an online retailer, you must have invested in an attractive eCommerce portal packed with high-quality product images and informative descriptions. But have you put as much thought into creating the product URLs? If not, then you are likely hampering your online visibility. Reports suggest that eCommerce portals that use clean URL structures rank 23% higher compared to others. Yet, many businesses overlook this crucial aspect, thereby limiting their reach.  

In this article, you will learn all about product URLs, including their importance, best practices for creating them, and mistakes to avoid while choosing them. Read on to find out!

What Are Product URLs and Why Are They Important?

A product URL refers to the online address of a product page. By keying in this URL, you get access to the product page where you can gain complete information about the product design and features. It is necessary to create a simple yet optimised URL so that the search engines find you with ease. In this way, the product URL helps attract organic traffic to your eCommerce portal and increases your chances of closing a sale. A URL communicating the content of the page it leads to is called a semantic URL. The one that doesn’t is referred to as non-semantic. 

There are a few factors that one must consider while creating a URL. In the following sections, you will learn about these factors and the right way to create an SEO-optimised product URL.

Why Do Product URLs Matter for SEO and User Experience?

As mentioned earlier, creating a well-structured, SEO-optimised URL is important so that the search engines can find your page easily. This improves your search engine rankings and helps customers reach your product pages swiftly. It is crucial for enhancing the visibility of your eCommerce portal and strengthening your online presence.

It has been observed that businesses that invest time and money in creating well-written URL stand a high chance of attracting potential buyers. Conversely, a lack of it can ruin your reputation among the search engines and lower your ranking. Poorly created product URLs make it difficult for customers to search your offerings.

What Are the Best Practices for Creating SEO-Friendly Product URLs?

Best ways to create effective product URLs to increase your online visibility are:

1. Make the URL Clear and Indicative of the Product

An ideal product URL should include the product’s name for clear understanding. For instance, if you are selling black denim jeans, your product URL should include these words. For example: https://www.example.com/black-denim-jeans

This helps search engines find your page when customers search for such an item online.

2. Readable

It should be easy to read. One way to enhance its readability is to hyphenate words like black-denim-jeans. Special characters, on the other hand, must be avoided as they can be quite confusing.

3. Consistent URL Structures for Variations

A product has various variations. For instance, a shirt of the same design and texture may be available in different colours and sizes. In such a case, the base URL must remain the same. For instance, there is a classic cotton shirt. The base URL for this can be https://www.xyz.com/shirts/classic-cotton-shirt. 

Information about different colour variants can be added further to this. This enables the search engines to identify variations and show relevant results.

4. Standardise URL Formatting

Another good practice is maintaining consistency in URL structure across your online store. You can do so by using the same types of separators and casing, among other things. For instance, if you use hyphens and lowercase in your URLs, maintain them across the portal. 

5. Right Length 

A product URL should not be too long. It must be simple and concise, ideally between 40 and 100 characters in length. This is the average length of most URLs on the first page of Google search results.

6. Strengthen Security

Your product URL must ensure a secure browsing experience. This can be achieved by adding HTTPS to it, like https://www.xyz.com/denim-jeans. Search engines also give preference to such links. It has been observed that eCommerce sites that include HTTPS in their URL have a 35% greater conversion rate than those that do not.

7. Add Product Category

It is a good idea to include the product category in the URL structure. This helps users navigate to suitable products with greater ease. Online stores with a wide range of products should particularly consider adding the category, for instance, https://www.abc.com/skin-care/organic-face-serum. However, the URL shouldn’t be too lengthy.

8. A/B Testing

It is advised to conduct A/B testing for different URL structures to identify which one works best for your potential buyers. 

What Are Google’s Best Practices for Crafting Product URLs?

Here is a look at some of the best practices for crafting a product URL as suggested by the search engine giant:

1. No Changes in the Product URLs

Google requires businesses to create permanent URLs. They must not be modified unless the landing page of a product changes. For this reason, it is recommended to avoid adding information that is likely to change in future.

2. Correct URL Structure

The correct structure includes starting the URL with https://, including verified domain name as on the Manufacture Center account setup and following the standard web address format. It is also recommended to replace special characters with the URL encoded entities. This helps in a clear display.

3. Leverage Microdata

Google recommends using microdata to show how different components on your landing page match up with your product description.

4. Link to Product Detail Pages

Google demands a product detail page link that takes you to a product page which should include well-written and accurate content about the product variant on offer. It should not be linked to any external eCommerce portal and must remain solely on your domain. It will not be visible to users.

5. Build Precise URLs for Product Options

It is necessary to build product URLs for their variants using its specific details such as colour, size, fit, etc. The search results should take you to the exact product variation.

What Common Mistakes Should You Avoid When Creating Product URLs?

When building product URLs, avoiding certain pitfalls is as important as following best practices. Here are some of the common mistakes that should be avoided while creating product URLs:

1. Long and Complicated URLs

As mentioned above, product URLs should be simple and concise. You should avoid adding parameters that make the URLs lengthy and difficult to read.

2. Keyword Stuffing

While it is good practice to add relevant keywords to a product URL, the keyword should not be stuffed unnecessarily. It should be embedded smoothly and not appear forced.

3. Use of Special Characters

Special characters hinder the readability of the URL, so they must be avoided. Likewise, spaces between words should be avoided. Instead, you can use hyphens to separate words.

4. Missing the Product Category

It is important to mention the product category in the URL to ensure it is well structured. Many businesses make the mistake of missing this crucial information, thereby hindering their chances of driving organic traffic to their eCommerce portal.

5. Modifying the Product URLs

Modifying the URLs after publishing them is another mistake. It impacts the search engine ranking negatively.

How Organised URLs Impact Rankings and Conversions?

Organised product URLs are important in driving search engine visibility and user engagement. Here are a few ways in which organised URLs help businesses grow:

• Organised product URL structures play a vital role in improving search engine rankings, leading to higher product page traffic. It helps in better search engine indexing. Research shows that semantic URLs can increase a website’s click-through rate by up to 30%. 
• An organised URL includes https:// which indicates that the user data remains secure on your website. This helps build credibility among search engines as well as end users.
• It enhances the user experience and may lead to a better conversion rate.

What Are Some Real-World Examples of Effective Product URL Optimisation?

Here are a few cases studies that reflect the power of using optimised product URLs:

1. Etsy – Etsy’s ability to generate huge organic traffic can be attributed to its SEO efforts. In addition to including SEO-optimised content, the renowned handmade and vintage products brand optimises its product URLs and listings to match the buyer intent.
2. Mochi Shoes – An Indian footwear brand, Mochi Shoes has substantially increased its product page click-through rate by working on its SEO strategies. To begin with, it identified the loopholes in its system, which included no schema markup, lack of optimised titles and high page load time among others. It worked on these and other aspects to bring about a positive change. Its efforts include using well-structured product URLs, unique titles and descriptions and a robust internal linking structure.
3. Booho.com – The fashion clothing brand has established a strong foothold in the eCommerce industry by creating an impressive, SEO-optimised online store. It uses well-written and user-friendly product URLs, appropriate image alt tags, and accurate meta-titles and descriptions. All this helps attract potential clients, thereby increasing its conversion rate.

Boost Your Product Page Performance Using Shiprocket’s eCommerce Tools

Shiprocket’s effective yet user-friendly eCommerce tools have been devised to enhance your product page performance. One of the most popular tools we offer is our one-step checkout process. By implementing it, you can reduce your cart abandonment rate substantially and boost your product perfomance by increasing the chances of conversion. Our tools and services can help reduce cart abandonment rate by 25% and increase the conversion rate by 60%. 

From reducing cart abandonment with the Checkout solution to increasing engagement through Engage360, a WhatsApp-centric marketing platform, Shiprocket helps improve every aspect of the user journey.

Integrated solutions by Shiprocket not only improve user experience while allowing businesses to automate marketing efforts. 

Conclusion: Why Should You Prioritise Clean Product URLs?

Product URLs impact an eCommerce site’s visibility more than other factors. Businesses must prioritise the use of clean and well-structured URLs to enable better search engine indexing for their pages. Such links also give more clarity to shoppers, thereby enhancing their experience. 

To achieve this, it is recommended that you create short, simple, and keyword-optimised product URLs. Many businesses make the mistake of using special characters, spaces, and unnecessary details in their URLs. These practices should be strictly avoided to allow easy access to your product pages and increase your click-through rate. A thoughtful URL structure is not just a technical detail; it’s a strategic asset for growing your eCommerce business.