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Marketing Hacks: SEO-Friendly URLs

As the last humans in marketing, we want to do everything we can to make this subject as accessible as possible. What better way to start, than with a few easy fixes that you can use right now to optimize your content.

Published on

Jan 15, 2022

Written by

Cecilia Qu'in

There’s no such thing a “quick fix” when it comes to digital marketing. No matter who you are or how long you’ve worked in the industry, there are always new things you can do to expand your audience, while simultaneously leaving plenty of room for the work that goes into the running your business.

Yet even with that in mind, it can be difficult to resist all those incredible offers! The promise of “fast results” and “overnight success” can awfully tempting, despite our better judgement. Even the most seasoned business owner can’t help arguing with that little voice sometimes. The one that whispers: “No… Don’t do it… Save yourself.” 

I mean… Why wouldn’t we want to risk it all?

Why wouldn’t we invest in a service that actively promises what we want?

That’s where we come in.

Table of Contents

  1. Customize and Shorten Your URLs
  2. Don’t Put Dates in Your URLs
  3. Revisions, Revisions, Revisions!

Welcome to Marketing Hacks

While it’s certainly important to optimize all the content that we have, not everybody wants to read through an entire article when we can skip ahead to the tips and tricks we want so badly.

As the last humans in marketing, we want to do everything we can to make this subject as accessible as possible.

What better way to start, than with a few easy fixes that you can use right now to optimize your content.

Marketing Hacks for SEO-Friendly URLs

1. Customize and Shorten Your URLs

This the most common mistake made with URLs. Instead of thinking up complex and unique terms for your URLs, we would personally recommend you opt for terms that are short, sweet, and easy to spell within seconds.

The URL is not just an address used to log onto your website. URLs are the KEY to digital accessibility.

A good URL should be as short and descriptive as possible. Short URLs are easy to read, easier to remember, and won’t scare off new customer’s from sharing the link when they feel so inclined. We all know what it’s like to share a link, only for the entire comment to be one long run-on sentence of indiscernible characters. Nobody wants that. 

Optimized VS. Non-Optimized:

http://awesomebiz.com/blog/marketing-hacks

http://awesome-biz.com/blog/super_awesome_marketing_hacks_4life

In fact, one interesting fact about Google Search is that their system requires the use of hyphens (-) instead of underscores (_) because Google SEO interprets the hyphen a space bar.

When you use underscores in your URLs, you’re forcing Google to read it as one word. It won’t come up in a common search.

  • Whenever you can, avoid the overuse of excessive and unfamiliar words.
  • Avoid the overuse of fancy characters, underscores, etc.
  • When you do use longer URLs, keep it easy to read!

If you weren’t aware of this? FIX IT.

2. Don’t Put Dates in Your URLs

We get it. You probably love how “official” those dates look on your blogs, right? This was certainly a common practice for major publications once upon a time… but this practice hasn’t been encouraged since 2019.

When you include a date in the URL, you are giving Google full permission to suppress your content.

When smaller businesses and freelancers put dates in their URLs, Google algorithms will assume that your website is only relevant to that date specifically.

Optimized VS. Non-Optimized:

http://awesomebiz.com/blog/seo-optimization-for-the-new-normal

http://awesome-biz.com/blog/2021/Jan-14/super_awesome_marketing_hacks_4ever_4life

Don’t sabotage your own success. The whole point of publishing new content is to attract new users to check out your business. This cannot happen when you add dates to the URLs.

3. Revisions, Revisions, Revisions!

Regular revisions are the key to giving your older content the much-needed boost it deserves. Too often, we think that once we hit “Publish,” we’re simply “done” with those posts.

We understand the temptation to move on. We have a finite window with which to impress our users, after all. Why go back when we can simply move forward?

When you fail to perform seasonal revisions on past content, Google analytics will categorize those pages as “irrelevant.”

If you want to keep your content SEO friendly, we would recommend making time for revisions, SEO updates, and general edits every quarter. Some prefer to carve out time for this monthly, which a good idea as well.

When you update your past work, you actively ensuring the relevancy of your brand. This will make it easier for digital foot traffic to find its way to your business – which will only help your marketing budget to yield better, and more profitable connections, every month.

Keep it Easy to Read and Easy to Find

While there’s no such thing a “quick fix,” we guarantee you that incredible things happen when you take matters into your own hands.

When you step outside your comfort zone.

When you find people you can trust enough to guide your business toward success.

That, my friends, is precisely what we’re here for.

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