URL structure for a small site is a decision made once

Introduction

Addresses get set without thought during a build, usually by whoever is clicking through the page settings at speed. Six months later the site has product pages ending in a numeric code, service pages nested three folders deep, and two sections using entirely different conventions.

None of this is fatal, and all of it is annoying to live with and expensive to change. The decisions are simple and they are worth ten minutes at the start, because the cost of revisiting them is a redirect map and a fortnight of nervous traffic watching.

1. URL structure for a small site is cheapest to get right at the beginning

The reason to spend the time now.

Changing an address later means a redirect, updating every internal link, and a temporary disturbance in search. Choosing sensibly at the outset avoids every part of that at no cost whatsoever, because at the point of creation one address is exactly as easy to type as another.

2. Use words a person can read

The basic rule.

An address containing the name of the thing tells both a visitor and a search engine what to expect, and it survives being pasted into a message or read aloud. Numeric identifiers communicate nothing.

3. Keep them short

Length is friction.

Include what identifies the page and drop the connecting words. Long addresses carrying an entire page title, including every connecting word, are truncated in search listings and awkward to share in a message or read out over a telephone.

4. Use hyphens between words

A convention rather than a preference.

Hyphens separate words reliably; underscores and run-together words do not. This is a settled convention and there is nothing to gain from deviating from it.

5. Group pages in a way that reflects the site

Structure carries meaning.

Placing service pages under a services path and articles under a single blog path makes the site easier to understand, easier to report on, and easier to restructure later. Consistency matters considerably more than which particular scheme you choose, and almost any reasonable scheme applied throughout beats a better one applied to half the site.

6. Avoid dates in article addresses

A choice people regret.

An address containing a year makes a useful article look obsolete, and it prevents updating and republishing without changing the address. Leave dates out unless the content is genuinely time-bound.

7. Keep them stable once published

The rule that saves the most trouble.

Editing an address for tidiness breaks every existing link, bookmark and reference to it. Unless the address is actively misleading, an imperfect established address is better than a perfect new one.

8. Stay lower case and consistent

Small inconsistencies produce duplicates.

Mixed capitalisation, inconsistent trailing slashes and both secure and insecure versions can produce several addresses for one page. Pick one form, enforce it, and redirect the rest.

9. Redirect properly when you must change one

The correct procedure when it is unavoidable.

Add a permanent redirect from the old address to the new one, update every internal link to point directly at the new address, and check your sitemap. Skipping the internal link update leaves a redirect chain behind every menu item.

Decide the convention once and write it down somewhere the next person will find it. Most inconsistency arises not from disagreement but from nobody knowing what the existing rule was, which is a documentation problem rather than a technical one.

Conclusion

Settle the structure at the start, because changing addresses afterwards costs redirects, internal link updates and a period of unstable traffic.

Use readable words rather than identifiers, keep addresses short, separate words with hyphens, group pages in a way that reflects how the site is organised, leave dates out of article addresses so they can be updated later, resist tidying established addresses, enforce one consistent form for case and trailing slashes, redirect properly and update internal links when a change is genuinely necessary, and write the convention down for whoever comes next.

Related reading

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