Creating a Custom URL

What's inside this article:

• Basic information
• Open the Custom URL tool
• Create a Custom URL
• Rules and recommendations
• Change a Custom URL

Basic information

You can create a Custom URL for the following page types:

• Sections
• Infopages
• Category

The default URL for these pages includes p/ or z/ followed by a string of numbers. When you create a Custom URL, you remove the numbers and replace them with descriptive, human-readable text. This has the following benefits:

• User experience: Descriptive URLs tell users where they will go after clicking a link.
• SEO: URLs that include keywords might rank more highly on search engine results pages. Consistent use of effective URLs also boosts the authority of your domain for search engines.

Open the Custom URL tool

Open the Custom URL tool via Settings > Custom URL.

Create a Custom URL

To create a Custom URL:

1. Select + Add new.

   

2. Under Custom URL, enter the text to include in the URL. For information about rules and best practice, go to the following section in this article:
   • Rules and recommendations

   

3. Under Link, select the page type.

   

4. In the final drop-down menu, select the name of the specific page. You can start typing to quickly find a specific page. You can only select pages that don't currently have an active Custom URL.

   

5. Click Add to create and apply the Custom URL.

   

The Custom URL is now created and should work immediately.

Rules and recommendations

Follow the recommendations below to create effective Custom URLs:

• Use only lower-case letters (even for proper nouns). For example, use russia and not Russia.
• Use hyphens (-) to separate words. For example, russia-invades-ukraine.
• Don't include redundant words with no semantic value, such as the and a.
• You might create Custom URLs in English or your local language. However, it's important to use the same language for all Custom URLs on your site.
• Search engines crawl and index URLs, so consider including keywords at the beginning of the Custom that reflect the page content.

Examples of effective Custom URLs are as follows:

• https://www.rferl.org/russia-invades-ukraine
• https://pressroom.rferl.org/journalists-in-trouble
• https://www.rferl.org/subscribe

The following rules apply for creating a Custom URL in CMS:

• The Custom URL must start with a letter.
• The Custom URL can include only letters, numbers, hyphens (-), and underscores (_).
• The Custom URL tool supports Unicode, so a Custom URL can include non-Latin characters.
• Each Custom URL must be unique. You cannot use the same Custom URL for more than one page.
• The following URLs are reserved for special pages and cannot be used as a Custom URL:
  • api
  • mobapp
  • podcast
  • rss
  • staticreport

Change a Custom URL

After you change a Custom URL, the old version of the Custom URL will no longer work. For this reason, after you change a Custom URL, we recommend creating a URL redirect from the old URL to the new one. For details, see the following article:

• Create a URL redirect

To change a Custom URL:

1. Hover over the panel and select Edit item (the pencil icon).

   

2. Enter the updated text under Custom URL, and hit Save.

   

The new Custom URL is applied and should already work.