Do Keywords in Your URLs Still Matter? Google Just Answered

Google called URL keywords an "incredibly small signal" on Oct 14 and reworded its hyphen advice on Oct 21. Here's what to change on your site, and what to leave alone.

Have you ever sat in a meeting while someone argued about whether a product page should live at /running-shoes or /products/rs-2041? Or been told that your old URLs are "hurting your SEO" and need a rebuild?

That argument has eaten a lot of agency invoices over the years. This month, Google weighed in directly.

On October 14, Google's Gary Illyes called keywords in a URL "an incredibly small signal" in the first episode of a new Search Central video series. A week later, Google quietly reworded its URL guidance on hyphens versus the _ character.

So what does it mean for your site? Short version: write clean URLs for new pages, and don't touch the old ones just to add keywords. Here's the detail.

Key Takeaways

• Google's Gary Illyes said keywords in a URL matter mainly when Google has "absolutely nothing else to go on", and become close to irrelevant once it can read the page.
• Google still recommends hyphens over the _ character, because it treats words joined with _ as one long word.
• On October 21, Google edited the hyphen section of its URL documentation, but the advice itself did not change.
• Googlebot will crawl and process URL paths containing emoji, though browsers percent-encode them and some apps show them as gibberish.
• Nothing in Google's guidance asks you to rewrite URLs that already work, and redirects add risk for very little reward.
• The best use of your time is a short, readable, consistent URL pattern for everything you publish from now on.

What Google Actually Said About URLs

Google launched a Search Central video series called "The Non-Canonical Cabinet" with a teaser on October 6. Episode one, "What can you actually put in a URL?", went live on October 14, hosted by Gary Illyes and Cherry Prommawin, according to Search Engine Journal.

The headline moment was Illyes on keywords. He called them "an incredibly small signal" and said they matter mainly when Google has nothing else to go on. Once Google can see your content, URL and domain keywords become "basically irrelevant", as Relevant Audience reported.

That isn't a new position. John Mueller called URL keywords a "very small ranking factor" in 2016 and a "very very lightweight factor" in 2021, per the same coverage. What's new is hearing it again, plainly, in a format a lot of site owners will actually watch.

Why This Still Matters for Your Site

A "small signal" doesn't mean "ignore your URLs". It means they're the wrong place to look for a ranking boost.

Think about who reads a URL. Customers see it in a browser bar, in a shared link, or pasted into an email. A readable address like /services/local-seo tells them where they are. A string like /p?id=88123&ref=x tells them nothing and looks risky.

Google's own documentation agrees: it advises using "readable words rather than long ID numbers" in URLs, and shortening them by trimming unnecessary parameters. That's about clarity and crawling, not a ranking trick.

So the useful question isn't "does this URL rank?" It's "would a customer understand this link if they saw it with no context?"

Hyphens vs the _ Character: What Changed on October 21

On October 21, Barry Schwartz reported at Search Engine Roundtable that Google had edited the "Use hyphens to separate words" section of its URL structure page. The overall meaning did not change.

The new wording says the _ character is commonly used to denote concepts that should be kept together, such as function names in programming. It adds that hyphens "clearly signal a word boundary". Google still doesn't recommend it, "for historical reasons".

Illyes made the practical point in the video: Google treats words joined with the _ character as "one long word". So /blue_running_shoes reads more like a single token than three words, while /blue-running-shoes reads as three.

Does that mean the _ character is penalised? No. The video didn't say that, and Illyes said it's sometimes fine. The point is that hyphens are the safe default.

What to Do on Your Site This Week

You don't need a project. You need a short checklist.

Step 1: Check your pattern for new pages

Look at the last ten URLs you published. Are they readable words separated by hyphens, all lowercase, with no session IDs or tracking parameters in the address?

Google treats /APPLE and /apple as different URLs, per its URL structure documentation, so pick lowercase and stick to it. If your server treats both the same, convert to one case.

Step 2: Fix the template, not the archive

If your CMS generates _ separators or long IDs, change the rule for new pages. That's a one-time setting in most platforms, and it costs nothing in rankings.

Step 3: Leave working URLs alone

Google's URL guidance doesn't ask anyone to rewrite existing addresses. Changing a live URL means setting up a redirect and hoping every link, sitemap and canonical tag follows. If you've got ranking pages with _ in the path, the upside of changing them is tiny.

Search Engine Roundtable's own headline on this summarised Google's long-standing line: Google really wants you to avoid changing URLs just for SEO reasons.

Step 4: Keep parameters tidy

Google's documentation says to separate key-value pairs with an equals sign and add parameters with an ampersand. It also advises trimming parameters you don't need. If your filters or tracking tags create endless URL variants, that's a crawling problem worth a proper technical SEO review.

A Quick Example

Say you run a plumbing company and you're about to publish a page on boiler repair in Leeds. Here are three ways to write the address:

1. /services/boiler-repair-leeds: clear, hyphenated, readable by a customer. This is the one to use.
2. /services/boiler_repair_leeds: works, but Google may read it as one long word. Avoid it for new pages.
3. /page?id=4417: tells nobody anything and relies on Google finding every other signal on the page.

Notice that option 1 isn't "better for rankings" in any big way. It's better for people, and it avoids the avoidable problems. That's the whole lesson.

When This Advice Doesn't Apply

There are a few cases where changing URLs is the right call.

• You're already planning a redesign or platform move, and a clean URL structure is part of the work.
• Your URLs contain session IDs or long parameter strings that create duplicate versions of the same page.
• Your site serves one page at several cases or paths, and you need to consolidate.

In those cases, plan the redirects carefully and treat it as a migration, not a quick tweak. If a website redesign is on your list, get the URL map signed off before launch.

And one warning: Illyes also said Google can detect spam in URLs. Stuffing a path with repeated keywords isn't a clever trick, it's a flag.

FAQs

Do keywords in the URL help me rank?

Barely. Google's Gary Illyes called them "an incredibly small signal" that matters mainly when Google has nothing else to go on. Once it can read your content, URL keywords are close to irrelevant. Use them for readability, not as a ranking tactic.

Should I use hyphens or the _ character in URLs?

Use hyphens. Google's documentation recommends them because they clearly signal a word boundary, and it doesn't recommend the _ character for historical reasons. Google treats words joined with _ as one long word, so hyphens are the safer default for every new page you publish.

Can I put emoji in a URL?

In a path, yes: Googlebot will crawl it and process it. Browsers percent-encode the characters, though, and some apps show them as gibberish. Emoji aren't allowed in domain names under current standards. It's technically possible but rarely a good idea for a business site.

Should I change my old URLs to add keywords?

Almost never. Google's guidance doesn't ask for it, the ranking benefit is tiny, and redirects add risk. Fix your template for new pages and leave working URLs alone unless you're migrating the site anyway.

Conclusion

The one idea to remember: URLs are for people first. Google has now said twice, in two different ways, that keywords in them carry almost no weight.

This week, check the pattern your site uses for new pages and fix it in the template if it needs it. Then stop worrying about the archive.

If you'd like a second pair of eyes on your site structure, our SEO services team is happy to look. You can get a free quote whenever it suits you.

Sources

• Search Engine Journal: Google launches a video series for odd technical SEO questions
• Relevant Audience: Google's Non-Canonical Cabinet on URL keywords, hyphens and emoji
• Search Engine Roundtable: Google updated its URL structure best practices for hyphens
• Google Search Central: URL structure best practices
• Google Search Central: documentation updates

About the author

David Banjo

Founder & CEO, Binatec Agency

David Banjo is an entrepreneur and web developer, and the Founder & CEO of Binatec Agency, where he helps businesses scale through custom software, digital products, and e-commerce growth strategies. He is also the creator of ProposelyAI, an AI-powered platform designed to streamline and automate proposal generation for freelancers and agencies. Recognized for his work in web development, AI workflow automation, and growth marketing, David equips brands with the modern tools needed to optimize performance and expand their digital reach.

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