URL

Keywords in a URL path have "hardly any effect beyond appearing in breadcrumbs", and studies showing short URLs rank higher are correlations, not causes. Google's URL guide gives usability rules instead: readable words rather than long IDs (/wiki/Aviation, not /index.php?topic=42&area=3a5e...), hyphens rather than underscores between words, and no # fragments to switch content, since "Google Search generally doesn't support URL fragments"; use the History API instead. Category folders such as /shoes/running/ help users and let Google learn which sections change often. Once published, keep URLs stable, or 301-redirect old ones.