Opera SEO Article

Intelligent site structure for better SEO!

From your new site structure to URLs

Once you've created your new site structure, you can go forth and create the URLs for this structure. Each page's URL should describe the content of that page, yet be as short as possible. If you have determined what keywords you want to rank for, you might include the most important ones in your URLs.

Things to keep in mind while implementing your new URLs

• If you're using multiple words, separate them with hyphens.
• Mixed case URLs are an absolute no-no, as Unix and Linux servers are case sensitive. Having mixed case URLs drastically increases the possibility of typos - have you ever tried remember a URL that /LoOks/LiKe/ThiS/ ?
• Numbers might be easy for your CMS, but not for your users. Remembering a URL with a number in it is hard, so the chance people will remember it and link to it is smaller - don't use numbers in URLs.
• Make URLs guessable if you can. If people can remember your URLs they can also talk about it with their friends more easily.
• Make sure you redirect all your old pages to their new equivalents using 301 redirects. A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect, and this way search engines will move all the link value from the old URL to the new one. For example, Make sure http://example.com 301 redirects to http://www.example.com, or the other way around, so people always link to the same "version" of your site.
• Make sure content is available under one URL and one URL only, for example by implementing print style sheets on your pages. There's no valid reason anymore to have a different page for printing purposes because all major browsers support print style sheets.