Friendly URLs are clean, human-readable web addresses like /customer/acme-corp instead of /record.php?id=4421. They're crucial for SEO, bookmarkability, and brand polish.
Why Friendly URLs Matter
- SEO: Search engines weight URLs in ranking. Keyword-rich URLs rank better.
- Bookmarkability: Users can remember meaningful URLs; they can't remember
?id=4421. - Shareability: Clean URLs look trustworthy when pasted into email or chat.
- Brand: Clean URLs feel like a quality product.
- Resilience: Backend IDs can change while public URLs stay stable.
How They Work
- Each record can have a “slug” field — a URL-safe string derived from the record's name.
- The platform's router maps incoming URLs to records by slug.
- Old slugs (renamed records) redirect to current ones automatically for 90 days.
- Slugs must be unique within the URL's scope.
Where Friendly URLs Are Used
- Public-facing pages (landing, marketing, knowledge base).
- Public-facing records (product pages, profile pages, articles).
- API endpoints where stable identifiers help integration (less common).
- Customer-facing portal pages.
Worked Examples
- Product page:
/products/widget-proinstead of/products/4421. - Help article:
/help/how-to-reset-passwordinstead of/help/article?id=87. - Marketplace seller:
/seller/acme-handmade— memorable URL the seller can put on their business card. - Knowledge base:
/docs/getting-started/your-first-datastore— nested hierarchy mirrors content structure.