URL
Web address
In short
A URL is the full address of one specific page on the web, such as https://yourcompany.no/prices. It tells the browser exactly where to go.
A URL has several parts. "https" says the connection is encrypted. "yourcompany.no" is the domain. Everything after the slash, such as "/prices", points to one specific page. The domain is the street address, and the rest of the URL is the flat number.
Good URLs are boring
A good URL is short, readable and describes the page: "/services/plumber-baerum", not "/?page_id=4821". People see the address in search results and when you share a link. Use lower case and hyphens. Leave out æ, ø and å, which easily turn into cryptic character codes when the link is copied.
Do not change them without a plan
Once a URL is in use, it sits in Google, in old emails and on other websites that link to you. If you change it, all of these land on an error page. If you have to change it, the old address should send visitors on to the new one with a 301 redirect.
Click an old link
Find an old link to your website, for example in an email you sent a couple of years ago or in an old Facebook post. Click it. If you land on the right page, all is well. If you get an error page, you have found something to fix, and an address to send to whoever runs the site.
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