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Create a Custom URL

What's inside this article:


Basic information

From Pangea CMS, you can create a Custom URL for the following page types:

  • Section pages
  • Infopages
  • Category pages
NOTE: It is not possible to create a Custom URL for your homepage.

The default URL for all Sections, Infopages, and Category pages includes p/ or z/ followed by a string of numbers. Using the Custom URL tool in Pangea CMS, you can replace the numbers 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.



Use the Custom URL list

Via Settings > Custom URL, you can open a list of all the current Custom URLs for your site.

Hit + Add new to create a new Custom URL for any Section, Infopage, or Category page.

To edit an existing Custom URL, hover over the panel and hit the Edit button.

For a Section / Infopage, you can also manage the Custom URL from the builder in Pangea CMS. For details, go to the following section:



Manage a Custom URL from the builder

To manage a Custom URL from the builder for an individual Section / Infopage:

  1. Go to Build in the primary navigation.
  2. Select Sections or Infopages.
  3. Select the specific page you want to update.
  4. Manage the Custom URL via SEO > Custom URL.
  5. Hit Publish or Publish & close to publish the change.



Guidelines

To create an effective Custom URL, we suggest following the basic guidelines below:

  • 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.
  • Do not 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 is 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 URL 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.voanews.com/press-freedom

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

  • The Custom URL must start with a letter.
  • The Custom URL can include only letters, numbers, hyphens (-), and underscores (_).
  • The Custom URL can include non-Latin script, as the Custom URL tool supports Unicode.
  • 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
NOTE: You can create Custom URLs that are derivatives of reserved URLs (such as podcastok and podcast-patsany).



Manage the Custom URL for a published page

The following rules apply when you add or edit a Custom URL for a page that is already published:

  • If you create a Custom URL for a published page that did not previously have a Custom URL, no further action is required. The default URL will automatically redirect to the Custom URL.
  • If you change an existing Custom URL, the old Custom URL will no longer work. We suggest creating a URL redirect from the old Custom URL to the new one.