Human-readable URL (HRU)

Contents

1. What is a Friendly URL
2. Examples of User-Friendly URLs
3. The Role of Friendly URLs in SEO
4. Structure and Patterns of Friendly URLs
5. Classification of Friendly URLs
6. How to Create Proper User-Friendly URLs
7. Convenient Services for Friendly URLs

What is a Friendly URL

A Friendly URL, or human-readable URL, is an easily understandable address of a web resource. This term is widely used among SEO specialists and stands for Search Engine Friendly, meaning "friendly to search engines." Friendly URLs allow users to grasp what the page is about just by looking at the link address.

Examples of User-Friendly URLs

To illustrate the concept of a Friendly URL, let’s consider two examples of links leading to the same page:

• https://www.postmypost.io/ru/2543 - At first glance, this address provides no information about the content.
• https://www.postmypost.io/ru/blog/kak-sdelat-opros-v-telegram/ - This URL is more informative and immediately shows that it refers to a blog and an article on "How to Create a Survey in Telegram."

The Role of Friendly URLs in SEO

In search engines, pages with Friendly URLs are indexed and ranked regardless of their structure. However, having informative URLs increases user trust and enhances interaction with the site. Search engines like Yandex and Google recommend creating logical and simple addresses, which makes it easier for them to assess the relevance of pages to user queries. Friendly URLs can significantly impact a site's visibility in search results, especially if they match search frequency and keyword competition.

Structure and Patterns of Friendly URLs

The structure of Friendly URLs can vary depending on the content management system (CMS), the specifics of the site, and its theme. Below are several common patterns:

• Direct link: This is a brief formulation of the page name. For example: http://site.com/o-kompanii/
• Address with .html extension: A pattern for static pages. For example: http://site.com/kontakty.html
• Address with path indication: Used for blog pages or online stores, for example: http://site.com/ru/blog/razdel/nazvanie-materiala/

Classification of Friendly URLs

Friendly URLs can be classified into three main types, depending on how they are written:

• Transliterated Friendly URLs: Uses Latin characters to represent Russian text. For example, "создание сайта" is written as "sozdanie-sajta."
• Friendly URLs in English: Although search engines understand English addresses, they may not be obvious to Russian-speaking users. Simple words like "news" or "shop" are easily perceived, while complex phrases may cause difficulties.
• Friendly URLs in Cyrillic: Russian letters make it easier for users to understand, but they can cause technical issues as the domain name system does not support Cyrillic.

How to Create Proper User-Friendly URLs

Creating correct Friendly URLs can be simplified with special plugins for CMS or manually if CMS is not available. Here are some recommendations for forming understandable URLs:

1. Come up with a name relevant to the page content.
2. Add keywords, avoiding keyword stuffing—1-2 words are sufficient.
3. Remove unnecessary words and keep the URL short (70-90 characters).
4. Check the logic of the statement and use lowercase letters.
5. Eliminate special characters and replace spaces with hyphens.

Example: the initial link https://www.postmypost.io/ru/blog/pisma-v-spame/ can be created based on the correct formula.

Convenient Services for Friendly URLs

To simplify the process of creating and transliterating Friendly URLs, it is recommended to use the following services:

• SEO URL generator-translator from Lacsy
• Friendly URL Generator
• Online converter iTRANSLIT
• URL Converter Advego