The TL/DR is this:

Really plan out your URLs and where you think they will be in the next 5+ years if at all possible. The goal is to future proof your URLs so that redirect, 404 and lots of other common issues simply aren't problems in the years to come.

URL Guide and Rules

Whenever possible the following guidelines should be followed: 

Use dashes (-) and not underscores (_) to bridge one word to anotherCorrect: /sun-round/Not Correct: /sun_round/Refrain from using stop words like “and”, “but”, “a” and other stop words whenever possible.Avoid using years or dates in URLs as it is hard to just refresh the page in later years without it looking dates.Optimal is 3-5 words, long is 6-8 words, extremely long URLs are more than 8 words.Use the Page Title as a guide and the overall topic of the page to help create the URL.Don’t repeat keywords or phrases if possible as it just looks over optimized, spammy and longer than it should be.Avoid using capital letters and mixed case URLs. Go with lower case always for URLs.Trailing slash vs. No trailing slash - go with one and make sure it works with your CMS.Avoid # in URLs as they will not follow after that.Organize, prioritize and create standards when you do use URL parameters/variables.

Arguments For Keeping URLs As Is

In meetings often SEOs have to fight with various teams on WHY URLs should not change or what they should change too.

For those times here is some ammo to take into those meetings but do listen to the full podcast to get even more ways to combat requests to change URLs

Analytics & Reporting - doing WoW or Month over Month reporting becomes very complicated.Mixed case URLs complicate reporting.Variables in URLs make reporting complicated or duplicate pages.Slash and No Slash can again muddy reporting.Redirect Chains - if you have done 2-4 site redesigns over 10+ years and have changed the URLs each time, you likely have many redirect chains.Domain Change - one of the few times when Rob is for URLs changing.Platform Change - if you are changing from ASP to PHP based platform this is one of the other rare times where you might need to change URLs.

Tools for Managing URLs

While every project and issue is different but Dave asked Rob what tools he goes to the most often:

Google Search Console - it just gives so much data and insight that you cant get anywhere else.Screaming Frog (or crawler of choice) - he uses it to look at the export of all the internal links for a site.Screaming Frog Log File Analysis - to get a view of what is going on with crawlersLink Tools (Semrush, Ahrefs, Majestic, etc.) - uses them to help find external links maybe pointing weirdly to a site

Full Transcript

Matt Siltala: [00:00:00] Welcome to another exciting episode of the business of digital podcast featuring your host, Matt scintilla and Dave roar. Hey guys, excited to have you join us on another one of these business of digital podcasts. Uh, grateful for, um, you know, grateful for that as always, that you give us the time of day and today we have a really good one for ya.

Well at least I'm excited for this one cause. Um, I know that we've got Dave there, but also the surprise guests that we have for you is a good friend of mine, Rob woods. Hey Rob, how's it going man?

Rob Woods: [00:00:33] It's good. Good man. Thanks for having me.

Matt Siltala: [00:00:35] So, just want to give guys a little bit of a background. So Rob and I, probably one of one of the oldest industry, if you call it friends that I have, um, way, way back in the day, one of my, one of the first clients.

And, and, uh. Anyway, Rob and I have been working together in some form or another. He's even come out to avalanche and done what we call an avalanche day at times, and where [00:01:00] does training for the teams and, and, uh, anyway, um, Rob, I'm gonna let you go ahead and, uh, kind of introduce where you're at now and what you consider, uh, your, your title t