Free tool
SEO Friendly URL Checker
Length, readability and keyword use in a URL, and what to change.
How it works
What is the SEO Friendly URL Checker?
The SEO Friendly URL Checker is a free tool that scores a URL out of 100 on how clean and readable it is. It checks length, query parameters, uppercase letters, underscores, unsafe characters, folder depth and file extensions, and whether your target keyword appears in the path. It scores the URL text, so it works on unpublished pages too.
How to use the SEO Friendly URL Checker
- Paste the full URL you want to check, including the path and any parameters.
- Add a target keyword if you want to know whether it appears in the path. Type it the way it would appear in the URL, with hyphens, such as
sitemap-generator, because the check looks for that exact text. - Press Check URL.
- Read the score and its grade, from Perfect down to High Risk, then the checklist. Each item says what passed or what to change.
What is an SEO friendly URL?
An SEO friendly URL is short, lowercase and readable, with words separated by hyphens and no query parameters: /blog/canonical-tags rather than /index.php?id=4471&cat=12. A person can tell what the page is about before clicking, and so can a crawler.
The words in a URL are a light ranking signal on their own. The larger benefit is indirect: a readable URL is easier to trust in a search result, to share and to link to.
How does the checker score a URL?
It starts at 100 and deducts for each problem. Query parameters cost the most, 25 points, because every combination of parameters is a separate crawlable URL. Uppercase letters and underscores in the path cost 15 each: paths are case sensitive on most servers, and Google recommends hyphens over underscores.
Length costs 10 points past 75 characters and 20 past 115, counted on the whole URL including the domain. More than three folders deep costs 10, unsafe characters 10 and a file extension such as .html or .php 5. A keyword you entered that is missing from the path costs 15.
Should I change existing URLs for SEO?
Usually not, if the page already ranks. Changing a URL means a 301 redirect, a period while Google processes the move, and old links that keep pointing through the redirect. Fix the URL pattern in your templates so new pages start clean, and change old URLs during a migration you are doing anyway.
When you do change one, 301 the old URL to the new one, point internal links straight at the new URL, and update the sitemap in the same release.
Questions
- Does URL length affect SEO?
- URL length has no direct ranking penalty, but long URLs are harder to read and share. This checker warns past 75 characters and fails past 115, counting the whole URL including the domain.
- What does an SEO friendly URL look like?
- An SEO friendly URL looks like
https://example.com/blog/seo-friendly-urls: lowercase words, hyphens between them, one or two folders and no parameters.https://example.com/index.php?id=77&cat=12loses points for its parameters and its file extension. - Should URLs use hyphens or underscores?
- URLs should use hyphens to separate words. Google recommends hyphens over underscores, and this checker deducts 15 points when the path contains an underscore.
- Does URL structure matter for SEO?
- URL structure matters a little for SEO. Words in the URL are a light relevance signal and a readable URL helps people choose the result, but it is not worth a redirect on a page that already ranks just to add a keyword.
- Does changing a URL affect SEO?
- Yes, changing a URL affects SEO for a while. The new address has to be crawled and the redirect processed before it takes over, and links you cannot update keep pointing through the redirect. Change a ranking page's URL only with a clear reason and a 301 in place.
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