A friendly-URL is a web address that is easy to read and understand. It can include terms that describe the content of the webpage.

Friendly-URLs are important for usability because they:

• are easy for users to remember
• are more meaningful than randomised URLs
• provide additional clues for site navigation.

In our LibGuides, the key guidelines for creating friendly-URLs are:

• Use hyphens instead of spaces. For example information-studies
• Match the terms in the URL to the title of the page
  • For example, if the title of the page is Finish, use that term in the friendly-URL (not conclusion or contact-us)
• In RSGs, make sure the subject code is in the main URL
• Write the subject code in upper case, but all other words/letters without capitalisation.

Examples of friendly-URLs in a Research Skills Guide:

Friendly-URLs are not required in LRG pages because they are only a single page and the guide friendly-URL can be used. 

You can update your older guides to make sure they have friendly-URLs, but it's best to do this only if you are changing the original URL and not a friendly-URL. This is because: 

• a pre-existing link to a page or guide that uses the original URL will still work even after that page has been given a friendly-URL.
• a pre-existing link to a page or guide that uses a friendly-URL won't work if the friendly URL has been changed.

So, you can change to friendly-URLs in any guide and be confident that pre-existing links will still work, but you shouldn't change a friendly-URL once its's been allocated.