FRIENDLY URLS

Introduction

The Director of PanoMobile, Nicholas Swift wrote this article on the 30th September 2007. In this article, Nicholas defines what a URL is and then provides an example of an unfriendly and friendly URL before discussing why friendly URL’s are more important to your web presence than you may think. Finally, Nicholas concludes the article with information on how PanoMobile can ensure that your website has friendly URLs which will ultimately increase peoples opinion of your website and its search engine ranking.


What is a URL?

The term URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. It is also referred to as a domain name. A URL is your unique website address that identifies your web presence. For example, http://www.panomobile.com is our URL and nobody else can have it. If we want to refer people to our website then we would give them this address. By typing your URL into the address bar of a web browser, this gives visitors a direct passage to your website.


What do you mean by a friendly URL?

A friendly URL is simply a URL that is:
  • Easy to remember.
  • Easy to spell.
  • Short in length.
  • Persistent, doesn’t change.

Example of an unfriendly and friendly URL

An example of an unfriendly URL is http://www.panomobile.com/portfolio.php?project=12. Now, this link does not work, it is just an example of how some URLs are formatted when they pull dynamic content from a database, in this case our project portfolio. The friendly URL version is http://www.panomobile.com/portfolio/kountry-kit/. This URL is friendly because it is more meaningful to users and as a result they are far more likely to remember it that in turn increases the likelihood of repeat visits. The URL contains the project name rather than a meaningless number. Apart from a number being meaningless to website visitors, it is also meaningless to search engines!


Why is it important to have friendly URLs?

Having friendly URLs on your website is important for the following reasons:
  • Easier for people to guess which often people do. For example, if people want to view the Tesco website they are obviously more likely to type http://www.tesco.com than http://www.tescoshopping.com so it was paramount for Tesco to secure the http://www.tesco.com domain name.
  • Easier for people to type manually.
  • They are more relevant to search engines like Google so they increase your chances of getting a higher search engine ranking.
  • They can also increase the likelihood of people going to other pages on your website.
  • Reduces the chances of your website being hacked since they hide the dynamic parts of the URL that are potentially open to abuse.

Friendly URLs with PanoMobile

At PanoMobile, we know the benefits of having friendly URLs and have witnessed the results. We can provide you with more information on what friendly URLs are as well as advise you on how your website can be optimised with friendly URLs. Also we can implement it for you.


How can I find out more?

Contact Nicholas Swift on 07813 025134 or n.swift@panomobile.com to discuss how PanoMobile can help ensure your website has friendly URLs.