What’s the ideal structure for a URL? Should it be long or short? The only advantage of a long URL is that it works in all hosting environments. But there are quite a number of disadvantages that make long URLs unpopular  especially with search engines and visitors.

More than the length of a URL, it is its stability that really matters. A stable URL structure is always advisable to avoid problems later. Here are a few ways to achieve a stable URL.

  1. Construct the URL for each page logically and based on the page content. Try to use readable words instead of ID numbers wherever possible.
  2. Keep your URL structure short and simple. Avoid displaying complex codes in the URL.
  3. Avoid using session IDs whenever possible as these could result in duplication and a large number of URLs. You could try using cookies instead.
  4. Remove unnecessary parameters which make the URL unnecessarily lengthy. Funky characters like “&” and “=” in the URL can make it difficult for search engine spiders to access the content easily.
  5. Use robot.txl to prevent crawlers from accessing problematic URLs.

Make sure you have the optimal URL structure for your web site right from the beginning. This will also  improve your search engine rankings.