URL structure: let the folders follow the topic
A URL structure is the pattern a site uses for its addresses: which folders exist, how pages are named inside them, and which language and script the names use. A good structure is readable, stable and mirrors the topic. It doesn't rank a page by itself, but a messy one makes the site harder to manage, harder to share and harder to crawl.
On this page — 4 sections
What makes a good URL?
Quick answer
Google's URL guidance asks for simple, descriptive words rather than long ID numbers, hyphens between words, and as few parameters as possible. A reader should be able to guess what the page is about from the URL alone, before opening it.
| Weaker | Better | Why |
|---|---|---|
/index.php?cat=12&id=8841 | /oud/cambodian-oud-oil/ | Words instead of IDs |
/recipes/molokhia_with_rabbit | /recipes/molokhia-with-rabbit/ | Google recommends hyphens, not underscores |
/services/ac/repair/split/dubai/marina/ | /dubai/split-ac-repair/ | Only the folders that carry meaning |
Google's documentation also warns that URLs with many parameters, such as sort orders and session IDs, can create huge numbers of addresses for the same content. That wastes crawling on duplicates instead of new pages.
Should URL folders mirror the site hierarchy?
Quick answer
Usually yes, but only for levels that are stable and meaningful. A folder per hub, such as /oud/ or /recipes/, helps readers and makes reports easy to filter. Deep chains of folders add length without adding meaning, so keep most URLs to two levels.
For an online furniture store in Cairo, /sofas/corner-sofas/ mirrors a hub and a branch. Adding /products/furniture/living-room/sofas/corner-sofas/ mirrors the CMS instead, and every page now has a longer address that says nothing new.
- Name folders after the topic, not the format:
/recipes/tells the reader more than/posts/or/2026/10/. - Leave dates out of evergreen URLs: a practitioner rule. A guide refreshed every year looks stale with last year's date in its address.
- Keep services and places consistent: a Riyadh pest-control company picks either
/riyadh/termite-control/or/termite-control/riyadh/and uses it everywhere.
Folders are a convenience, not a ranking lever. What tells a search engine how pages relate is the internal linking. A matching folder simply makes that structure easier for people to see and for you to audit.
Should Arabic pages use Arabic, transliterated or English URLs?
Quick answer
Any of the three can work, because Google handles UTF-8 URLs in Arabic script. Arabic slugs read naturally in Arabic results but turn into long encoded strings when copied. English slugs stay short. Transliteration tends to drift between spellings. Pick one rule and apply it everywhere.
| Option | Example | Strength | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic script | /وصفات/ملوخية-بالأرانب/ | Readable to Arabic users in results | Long percent-encoded text when pasted in some apps |
| English | /recipes/molokhia-with-rabbit/ | Short, easy to share and type | Says nothing to readers who don't read English |
| Transliteration | /wasfat/molokhia-bel-araneb/ | Latin letters, Arabic words | Inconsistent spellings across writers |
On a bilingual site, keep each language in its own folder, such as /ar/ and /en/, and connect the two editions of each page with hreflang. A Gulf real-estate site might use English slugs in both folders for short, shareable links, while an Egyptian recipe site writing only for Arabic readers might prefer Arabic slugs.
How do you change URLs without losing traffic?
Quick answer
Change them once, in one planned move. Map every old URL to its new one, set permanent server-side redirects (301 or 308) as Google documents, update internal links and the sitemap to point straight at the new addresses, and keep the redirects in place long-term.
- List every old URL from the sitemap, analytics and Search Console, including old blog posts that still get links.
- Map each to the closest new page. Sending everything to the home page throws away what each page had earned.
- Set permanent redirects on the server, then test a sample by hand.
- Update internal links so they point at the new URL directly, not through a redirect.
- Submit the new sitemap and watch the Page indexing report in Search Console.
This article is part of the Topical Authority series — What topical authority is, how to choose the subject you want to own, and how structure, links and publishing pace build it.
About the author
Mohamed Youns
Semantic SEO Engineer · Author & system developer
Mohamed Youns writes about how search engines understand content — the same standards he applies when building semantic systems at Nut Hub. nut-hub.org