Friendly URLs are human-readable web addresses (e.g. /about, /pricing, /help/getting-started) instead of internal IDs. They're crucial for SEO, sharing, brand consistency and ease of recall.
Slug Rules
- Lowercase ASCII letters, digits and hyphens only.
- Cannot start or end with a hyphen.
- Cannot contain spaces (auto-converted to hyphens on save).
- Cannot collide with reserved paths (
/api,/login,/admin). - Should be short and meaningful — aim for under 5 words.
Nested Paths
Slugs can be nested using slashes: /help/getting-started/datastores. This creates URL structure that mirrors content hierarchy — great for documentation and large content sites.
Redirects
When you change a slug, the old slug auto-redirects (HTTP 301) to the new one for 90 days. After 90 days the old slug expires unless you set a permanent redirect rule.
SEO Considerations
- Use keywords customers actually search for.
- Avoid stop-words like “and”, “or”, “the” unless they add meaning.
- Keep slugs stable — frequent changes hurt search ranking.
- Canonical URL tag confirms which slug is authoritative for indexable pages.
Worked Examples
- SaaS marketing: /, /features, /pricing, /about, /contact — short, brand-fitting.
- Documentation: /docs/getting-started, /docs/api/authentication — nested hierarchy.
- Knowledge base: /help/article-name — flat, single-level, all under /help.
- Multi-language: /en/pricing, /fr/tarifs — locale-prefixed.
- Marketing campaigns: /summer-2026, /black-friday — campaign-specific landing pages.