Planning a URL structure

Why addresses deserve planning

A page's address appears in search results, in shared links, in printed material and in people's browser history. It is one of the few parts of a website that outsiders copy and keep. Change it and every copy breaks unless a redirect catches it. That makes addresses one of the parts of a structure where planning pays back for years.

Google's address rules

Google Search Central's URL structure guidance is short and specific. Its main points:

• Readable words. "When possible, use readable words rather than long ID numbers in your URLs."
• Hyphens between words. Google recommends "using hyphens (-) instead of underscores (_) to separate words in your URLs".
• Consistent case. "Google Search's URL handling is case sensitive." If your server treats upper and lower case as the same, convert addresses to one case.
• Fewer parameters. Trim parameters that are not needed. Where parameters are needed, use = for key and value and & between parameters.
• No fragments for content. Google generally does not support content changes driven by the part of an address after #. Use the History API in JavaScript applications instead.

Its SEO Starter Guide adds that words in the address "may be useful for users", while addresses made of random identifiers are less helpful.

Folders or flat?

The biggest choice is whether addresses mirror the hierarchy.

Nested folders, such as /services/planning/permits/, show where a page sits. People can read the path and, in some sites, trim it to go up a level. Google's SEO Starter Guide notes that grouping topically similar pages in directories can help it understand how often pages in a directory change, which matters chiefly for sites with "more than a few thousand URLs". The cost is fragility: move a page to another section and its address changes.

Flat addresses, such as /planning-permits/, keep every page one level deep. Pages can move between sections without changing address. The cost is that the address says nothing about the structure, and two pages in different sections cannot share a slug.

A middle path uses one level of folders for a few stable top-level sections (/services/, /guides/, /news/) and flat slugs within them. This shows the main content type in the address while keeping most moves inside a section address-neutral.

Breadcrumbs do not depend on the address pattern. Google's breadcrumb guidance recommends that breadcrumb trails follow a likely user path rather than simply mirroring the URL structure, so a flat address can still have a full breadcrumb trail.

Writing slugs

• Use the words people search for and understand, not internal codes.
• Drop small words when they add length without meaning: "how-to-apply-for-a-permit" can become "apply-for-a-permit".
• Avoid words that will date: years, "new", "latest", campaign names.
• Keep one slug per concept. If "permit" and "licence" mean the same thing on your site, choose one.
• Use Australian spelling consistently if your content does: "licence" for the noun, "organisation", "colour".
• Avoid stop characters and accents. The sitemap builder converts titles to slugs following these rules.

Parameters, filters and duplicates

Filters, sorting options and tracking codes add parameters that can create many addresses for the same content. Google's faceted navigation guidance recommends the standard & separator, a consistent order for filters, and a 404 status for filter combinations with no results. Where filtered addresses are not needed in search, it suggests blocking them from crawling. For tracking codes, keep them out of internal links altogether; use them only in links from campaigns outside the site.

When the same content is reachable at several addresses, the SEO Starter Guide notes you can redirect the extra addresses or mark one as canonical with rel="canonical". Duplicate content is not a spam violation, but it wastes crawling and can confuse people.

One page, one address

Decide the canonical form of every address and redirect the alternatives:

• http to https,
• www to the bare domain, or the other way round,
• with or without a trailing slash,
• index.html to the folder address.

Each redirect should go straight to the final form in one step. A request for http://www.example.com.au/guides should not bounce through three redirects to reach https://example.com.au/guides/.

When addresses must change

Sometimes they must: a restructure, a merger, a platform move. Google's site move guidance recommends permanent redirects such as 301 or 308, mapping each old address to its best new equivalent rather than to the home page, and keeping redirects "for as long as possible, generally at least 1 year". The restructuring guide covers the process step by step.

Addresses for files and documents

PDFs, images and downloadable documents have addresses too, and they are linked from emails, other websites and printed material. Give them readable names before uploading them, such as annual-report-2025.pdf rather than scan0042-final-v3.pdf, and keep them in a predictable folder. When a document is replaced with a newer version, consider keeping a stable address that always points to the current version, and moving older versions to an archive address, so links in old emails still lead somewhere useful.

Addresses in multi-site and multilingual setups

If your organisation runs several sites, or publishes in more than one language, decide early whether they share one domain with folders, such as /zh/ for Chinese content, or use separate domains or subdomains. Folders keep everything under one address and one set of rules; separate domains suit content run by different teams. Whichever you choose, apply it consistently, because changing it later means redirecting every address involved.

A short address policy

Write your rules on one page and share it with everyone who creates pages:

1. Lower case, words joined by hyphens.
2. Our top-level folders are fixed: list them.
3. Slugs use the page's main term, no dates, no campaign names.
4. Tracking parameters never appear in internal links.
5. Any change to a published address needs a redirect, set up the same day.

A planned sitemap includes a policy like this, tailored to your site.

Questions about this topic

Should URLs end with a slash?

Either style works if you pick one and redirect the other to it, so each page has a single address. Folder-style addresses ending in a slash suit sites where each page is served as a folder index.

Do keywords in URLs help rankings?

Google recommends readable words because they help users. It does not present them as a ranking lever. Write addresses for people, and keep them accurate to the page.

Should we include dates in article URLs?

Only if the date is part of what the content is, such as a news release. For guides you plan to update, a date in the address becomes misleading after the first revision.

Sources checked 4 November 2026 for planning a url structure

1. URL structure, Google
2. Faceted navigation, Google
3. SEO Starter Guide, Google
4. Breadcrumb markup, Google
5. Site moves, Google