For the love of URLs

URLs are at the frontline of information architecture.

URLs are often the first contact someone has with your website.

A thoughtfully constructed semantic URL:

• Is easily read and interpreted
• Lets people know what to expect (and creates expectations)
• Lets people know whether a site is trustworthy (from the protocol and domain)
• Is easily converted e.g. to speech
• Hints at other content, resources or functions
• Saves time and resources lost through navigation
• Can be bookmarked
• Can be shared
• Can be edited or hacked
• Enables people's preferences to be captured and analysed
• Helps bots discover pages (either directly or via a sitemap)

Links to external references

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