This is Part 10 of the SEO for Authors series. This article deals with your blog posts and your URL.
I’m pretty sure the contributors to Writers on the Move and its readers know about URLs.
If not, URLs are the addresses to your webpages and blog posts.
URL is an acronym for Universal Resource Locator and according to Techopedia, “Tim Berners-Lee and the Internet Engineering Task Force working group is credited with developing the URL in 1994.”
Here’s an example and breakdown of a URL:
http://karencioffiwritingforchildren.com/2018/01/14/your-author-platform-is-it-ever-too-soon-to-start/
1. The protocol for most: Http or Https
2. The location: This is usually the domain name
3. The TDL (top-level-domain): .com, .org. .uk, and so on
4. The rest is information pertaining to the specific webpage address
Along with providing location information, did you know that you can have SEO friendly URLs and ones that aren’t?
So, what makes a URL, in regard to a blogpost, friendly or optimized?
Here’s an example of an optimized URL for a blogpost. It reads:
http://karencioffiwritingforchildren.com/2017/12/23/publishing-your-book-the-hybrid-way/
It’s easily readable. This makes it simple for people to get a gist of what the article is about. This is also easy for search engines read and categorize.
Words, especially keywords, have power. Having them within your URL is another element of optimizing your website.
This is important because the URL is one of the first places a search engine will look to find out what your blog post is about. Making it easy to read is always a plus.
Okay, we saw what an optimized URL looks like, but what about one that isn’t.
Powerless URLS
This is what a powerless blog post URL looks like:
http://example.com/?=123
Using this generic format, each blog post will have a different number, but they will not have word power.
The search engine will have no idea what the post is about from the numbers. And just as important, neither will the reader.
So, how do you make sure your blog post URLs are optimized?
Well, in WordPress’ Dashboard, under Settings: Permalinks, you’ll have the option to choose how you want your URLs to read.
This is what it will look like:
If you notice, there is an option for Plain and an option for Numeric.
You don’t want to use either of those.
Click on ‘Day and Name’ or ‘Month and Name’ or ‘Post Name.’
In the image above, I have mine set for Day and Name, but I’ve since changed it to Month and Name.
I like the month and year in my URLs for my own purposes. If you don’t need or want the date, just choose Post Name, circled in RED.
No fuss or muss.
Once you choose how your URL will appear from the Permalink setting, you don’t need to do anything else. Each post will appear the title of the post.
Doing this for your blogposts, you’ll have one more simple-to-do SEO element checked off.
Sources:
(1) https://www.techopedia.com/definition/1352/uniform-resource-locator-url
(2) https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-a-url-2626035
(3) http://www.wpbeginner.com/wordpress-seo/
TO READ THE OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS SERIES, GO TO:
http://www.writersonthemove.com/p/workshops.html
Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children’s author and children’s ghostwriter/ rewriter. She is also the founder and editor-in-chief of Writers on the Move and author online platform instructor with WOW! Women on Writing.
If you need help with your author platform, check out Karen's e-classes through WOW: http://www.articlewritingdoctor.com/content-marketing-tools/
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