Technical SEO
URL Structure Best Practices (Including URL Parameters)
Good URLs help users and crawlers. Most CMSs handle the basics; here’s what to check.
Google’s starter guide says parts of the URL can appear as breadcrumbs in results, and recommends including words that are useful to users rather than random identifiers. It also says keywords in the URL alone have hardly any ranking effect beyond that.
The bigger SEO risk is technical: URL patterns that create duplicate or endless URLs.
Short answer: Use readable URLs with descriptive words, hyphens and consistent lowercase; keep one URL per piece of content; use ?key=value parameters rather than bare values, and don’t repeat parameters; don’t put session IDs, tracking codes or timestamps in internal links; don’t use # fragments to show different content; and group related content in folders on larger sites. Don’t change established URLs just to add keywords.
Key Takeaways
- Descriptive words help users; Google says keywords in URLs alone have little ranking effect.
- One URL per piece of content.
- Use ?key=value parameters and don’t repeat them.
- Keep session IDs and tracking parameters out of internal links.
- Don’t change working URLs without a strong reason and redirects.
Good and bad patterns
| Recommended | Avoid | Why |
|---|---|---|
| /services/local-seo/ | /page?id=3243 | Descriptive words help users |
| /t-shirt?color=green | /t-shirt?green | key=value parameters are easier to understand |
| ?type=candy,sweet | ?type=candy&type=sweet | Google may ignore a repeated parameter |
| /t-shirt?location=UK | ?session=123123 | Temporary values create endless duplicate URLs |
| /product/black-t-shirt | /product/t-shirt#black | Google doesn’t index fragments as separate pages |
URL parameters
- Decide which parameters change content (filters, pagination) and which don’t (tracking, sorting).
- Keep non-content parameters out of internal links and sitemaps.
- Use canonicals pointing to the clean URL where parameter versions exist.
- Block crawl-trap parameters with robots.txt on large sites (faceted navigation).
Folders and structure
Google says grouping topically similar pages in directories can help it learn how often different sections change, which matters most on sites with more than a few thousand URLs. It also says it generally doesn’t use URL structure to work out site structure; links do that job.
Changing URLs
Changing URLs is a migration. Only do it for a real benefit, and redirect every old URL. See redirect maps.
Frequently asked questions
Do keywords in URLs help rankings?
Google says keywords in the domain or path alone have hardly any effect beyond appearing in breadcrumbs.
Should URLs be short?
Readable matters more than short. Avoid unnecessary folders and IDs.
Should I use dates in blog URLs?
Not necessary. Dates can make evergreen content look outdated and complicate updates.
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Sources
- Google Search Central: SEO Starter Guide
- Google Search Central: Designing a URL structure for ecommerce sites
- Google Search Central: How to specify a canonical URL
Last reviewed October 14, 2026.
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