URL Structure Checker for UK Small Businesses
Most small business owners never think about URL structure. But a confusing URL signals to visitors they might be lost, before they've read a word. Paste any URL for an instant AI check against Google's guidelines.
Your URL is the first thing Google reads about a page. It tells search engines what the page is about, and it tells visitors whether they can trust where they've landed. Most small business websites get this wrong without knowing it. Underscores instead of hyphens, URLs six levels deep, dynamic parameters that look like technical gibberish. None of it is obvious until someone points it out. Paste any URL below and we'll check it against Google's own guidelines in seconds.
Checking your URL against Google's guidelines…
Running side-by-side analysis…
What makes a good URL?
Most business owners have no idea their URLs are working against them. Here's what Google's Search Central documentation actually says, and why every rule matters to the real people clicking your links.
Google treats hyphens as word separators, so "boiler-installation" is read as two clear words. Underscores are invisible to Google, making "boiler_installation" read as one word: "boilerinstallation". It also looks unprofessional to visitors who notice.
A URL should be short enough to share, type, and remember. Google truncates long URLs in search results. More importantly, a long URL signals a disorganised site to a visitor who is already uncertain about trusting you.
URLs with ?id=123 look like technical accidents to visitors. They're impossible to read meaningfully and signal a site built without visitors in mind. They convert worse even when they technically work fine.
HTTPS is a confirmed Google ranking signal. Chrome shows "Not Secure" for HTTP sites, and most visitors abandon immediately when they see it. There is no acceptable reason for a live business website to be on HTTP in 2026.
Every "/" is a level of depth. Too many levels make URLs unreadable and harder for Google to crawl. A visitor looking at a 6-level URL feels buried inside a maze, not somewhere they'll trust with an enquiry.
A URL with /2019/03/ tells visitors the content is old before they even click. For news, dates are fine. For service pages, guides, and product pages, they reduce click confidence and make your content feel outdated.
URL patterns by site type
What good and bad looks like across different UK small business website types.
Common questions about URL structure
Does URL structure actually affect SEO?
Yes, though it is one of many factors rather than a magic fix. Google uses URLs to understand what a page is about before it even reads the content. A clear, descriptive URL reinforces your page topic. A messy one creates doubt. It also affects click-through rate in search results, because people scan the URL before deciding whether to click.
Should I use hyphens or underscores in URLs?
Hyphens. Google treats a hyphen as a space between words, so "boiler-installation" reads as two separate words. Underscores are treated as connectors, so "boiler_installation" reads as one word: "boilerinstallation". It is a small detail that makes a real difference, and it costs nothing to get right.
How many levels deep should my URLs be?
Try to keep it to four levels or fewer. Each forward slash adds a level, so "yoursite.co.uk/services/plumbing/boiler-installation" is three levels deep and perfectly fine. Once you get to five or six levels, URLs become hard to read, hard to share, and harder for Google to crawl efficiently.
Do I need to change my URLs if my site is already live?
Only if the problem is significant enough to be worth the disruption. Changing a live URL breaks any existing links pointing to it, so you would need to set up a 301 redirect from the old address to the new one. For a brand new site or a page with no inbound links, clean it up. For an established page with links and traffic, the risk often outweighs the benefit unless the URL is genuinely broken.
What are dynamic parameters and why do they cause problems?
Dynamic parameters are the strings of characters you sometimes see after a question mark in a URL, like "?id=123&cat=shoes". They are generated automatically by some website platforms and content management systems. They cause problems because they are meaningless to visitors, they make pages harder for Google to index correctly, and they can accidentally create duplicate content when different parameter combinations load the same page.
Want a full UX audit of your website?
URL structure is just one piece. Find out everything that's stopping your visitors from becoming customers.
Analyse My WebsitePlanning a new build? Use our free website build checklist to brief your developer properly before work starts.