URL Structure and How to Improve SEO for Car, Leisure Vehicle & Motorcycle Dealers
Your site’s URL structure — the way your page addresses (links) are formed — can directly influence SEO and search rankings. A clear, logical structure not only helps search engines understand your site but also improves user experience.
Keep URLs short, descriptive, and easy to read. Avoid joining all words together or using underscores (_). For example, for a page about the “New Porsche Range”, a good URL would be new-porsche-range, not newporscherange or new_porsche_range, and definitely not search?makes%5B%5D=porsche.
Is URL Structure Important for SEO?
Yes. While not the single biggest ranking factor, URL structure does impact SEO. A well-structured URL can improve search engine crawlability, strengthen relevance signals, and encourage more clicks from users.
A URL consists of three main parts: the protocol, the domain name, and the path. For example, in this page’s URL https://www.dealerwebs.com/seo/site-url-structure:
- Protocol:
https:// - Domain name:
dealerwebs.com - Path:
/seo/site-url-structure
User Experience
From a visitor’s perspective, short and descriptive URLs are easier to remember and trust. For example, /seo/site-url-structure instantly tells a user the page topic, whereas /index.php?pid=38298ao_9k is meaningless to them.
Search Engine Understanding
Search engines use URL structure to map your site hierarchy. Logical, keyword-relevant URLs, combined with a strong internal linking strategy, help improve crawlability and distribute page authority more effectively.
URL Structure Best Practice Checklist
- Keep URLs short, descriptive, and relevant to the page content.
- Use hyphens (
-) to separate words, not underscores (_). - Avoid unnecessary parameters where possible (e.g.
?id=123). - Reflect your site’s logical hierarchy in the URL path.
- Include relevant keywords naturally — avoid keyword stuffing.
- Use lowercase letters only, to prevent duplicate URL issues.