Have you set up your website with all your products and collections quickly, and are now starting to realise that it may not have been the most optimised way to do so? No worries, you're in the same boat as many other small businesses, who often look to get their shops online as fast as possible so they can get started with the money making. I get it!
But, now it's time to start optimising so you can get more traffic from google and more sales. And as you start researching, one of the questions you may be asking is "how important is the URL for SEO"? The answer is Very. It's very important!
The URL of your website, page, product or collection is the address in which it is found. It is what is written on the envelope that is the web page, before Google even gets to the juicy text and images on the letter inside. You follow me? It's the first thing Google sees, so if there are keywords in your URL, you're off to a fabulous start.
But before you go editing all the URLs on all your products, beware: if you change the URL of a page, you will need to make sure there is a redirect pointing from the old URL to the new URL. Like, if you move house, you gotta get one of those mail redirect things setup, or you won't get your letters.
However, if you have a LOT of redirects, like hundreds of redirects, on your website, you may be penalised by google in the rankings. Google wants to give its users a fresh, clean experience and lots of redirects make the journey for the user a little harder, a little longer and a little more confusing, so it's not ideal.
So, it's worth making sure your URLs are optimised as part of your SEO strategy, but don't just go changing them willy-nilly. Its best if you have a proper SEO strategy set up for you from an expert in small business SEO!
