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Site Audit Errors Explained: Poorly Formatted URL for SEO

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Poorly Formatted URL for SEO

Ubersuggest's Site Audit tool is a powerful feature designed to help website owners find and rectify SEO issues. One of the recommendations generated by the Site Audit is the "Poorly Formatted URL for SEO." This article aims to guide beginner SEOs on understanding, finding, and resolving this issue using Ubersuggest.

Understanding Poorly Formatted URLs for SEO.

A "Poorly Formatted URL for SEO" refers to a web address (URL) that doesn't adhere to recommended SEO practices. It may have elements that lower a website's search engine ranking potential. When it comes to SEO-friendly URLs, several factors should be considered:

 

URL Length: Keep your URLs concise, ideally under 120 characters.

Relevance: Ensure that the wording in the URL is directly related to the content of the web page.

Symbols and Underscores: Avoid using symbols and underscores within the URL slug.

Session IDs: Drop session IDs from URLs.

Complex Sub-Folders: Limit the number of sub-folders in the URL structure.

Why are Poorly Formatted URLs Bad for SEO?

Google considers URLs as one of the ranking factors. When URLs are poorly formatted, they can negatively affect your website's SEO performance. Here's why:

  • Lengthy URLs can be less user-friendly and harder to remember.
  • Irrelevant or confusing wording in URLs may affect click-through rates from search results.
  • Symbols and underscores can make URLs less readable for both users and search engines.
  • Session IDs and excessive sub-folders can complicate the website's structure, potentially leading to crawl issues.

How to Identify Poorly Formatted URLs?

To find poorly formatted URLs using Ubersuggest:

1. Access the Site Audit tool.

2. Crawl your website using the Site Audit. 

3. Review the list of recommendations and look for "Poorly Formatted URL for SEO" errors.

4. Click on the error to see specific examples and affected URLs on your website.

 

 

Ubersuggest's Site Audit tool checks your URLs for three common issues:

Characters Check: Ubersuggest examines your URLs to ensure they meet Google's recommendations. Essentially, your URLs should only have uppercase and lowercase Latin characters, digits, and dashes. Any symbols or special characters may be flagged as issues.

Dynamic Check: The tool searches for dynamic parameters within your URLs. For example, URLs like "[https://example.com/some_url.php?adsasd=5](https://example.com/some_url.php?adsasd=5)" with dynamic characters such as question marks and equal signs will be identified. These characters can make URLs less readable for both users and search engines.

Keywords Check: This test assesses the consistency of your page's URL with meta tag keywords. If the keywords tag is empty or absent, Ubersuggest compares the URL with the content of the <title> tag.

 

 

Fixing Poorly Formatted URLs for SEO.

If Ubersuggest flags your URLs for any of the above issues, here's how you can fix them:

Characters Check (Symbols): 

  • Replace any symbols or special characters in your URL with dashes (-), which are SEO-friendly.
  • Ensure that your URLs have only uppercase and lowercase Latin characters, digits, and dashes.

Dynamic Check (Dynamic Parameters): 

  • Modify dynamic URLs to create static, human-readable versions.
  • Consider using descriptive words in your URLs instead of parameter-driven strings.
  • Implement URL rewriting techniques to make dynamic URLs more user and SEO-friendly.

Keywords Check (Consistency with Meta Tags): 

  • Ensure that your page's URL aligns with your meta tag keywords or the content of your <title> tag.
  • If your keywords tag is empty or missing, consider adding relevant keywords to your meta tags.
  • Optimize your content to include relevant keywords that reflect your page's content.

By addressing these issues and following these suggestions, you can improve the formatting of your URLs and enhance your website's SEO performance. Well-structured and SEO-friendly URLs contribute to better search engine rankings and user experience. 

Pro Tips for URL Optimization

For more information on creating SEO-friendly URLs, check out this article by Neil Patel.