In the world of search engine Optimization, there are several factors that need to be considered to help businesses rank at the top. One such technique to help you reach that spot is URL manipulation or rewriting which is surprisingly easy yet incredibly effective.
URL rewriting is not a difficult concept to comprehend, but it is a useful tool to improve organic search ranking and traffic to your website. Despite this advantage, it is rarely covered in SEO publications.
To understand why URL rewrites are important, we must first acknowledge the significance of URLs or uniform resource locators. Defined as a unique identifier utilised to locate a resource on the world wide web, it consists of a domain name that tells a web browser where to recover a resource. And when it comes to your website, these URLs are frequently the first thing web search engines and customers will see.
Consider these two examples:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=500608523&ref=profile
http://www.facebook.com/people/Aaron-Bronow/500608523
Both of these addresses take you to the same web page and their only difference is the way they are structured. The first one is relevant to the server while the latter – which was rewritten – is relevant to not only the server but also to search engines and most end-users who speak English.
This is why rewriting URL is vital – to make it more user-friendly and compel end-users to engage in your website. Apart from this, here are other advantages to using this technique:
- Simplicity is key
When you rewrite the URL, it allows you to display shorter and direct to the point URLs because long and intricate ones divert attention instead of attracting it. This gives users the wrong impression about a website such as it being too complex.
- SEO friendly
URL rewrites allow webmasters to technically change the hierarchy of the website, while still preserving the existing URLs of the website which needs to be static in order to support search engine Optimization.
- Stay on top
Keywords are vital to a page’s ranking in Google. Rewriting URL provides SEO specialists better control over the keywords in the URLs regardless of technical contemplations. But more importantly, it makes it easier for search engines to comprehend.
- Be more visible
The average length of URLs ranked in the top 10 results is 37 characters. Based on the examples provided above, rewriting the URL and making it shorter would effectively improve its ranking and site visibility.
All of these advantages put a business in a good on the rankings that is why this technique is usually included in SEO packages offered in Singapore.
To effectively help a company establish a strong online presence, URL rewriting is undoubtedly a significant aspect of SEO. Unfortunately, it is often overlooked by webmasters – but not us at OOM Pte Ltd, an SEO agency in Singapore. We make sure to cover all our bases to ensure that we give our clientele their money’s worth!
