URLs – a Part of the UI that You Should Not Neglect

URLs are the base of the Web, being the combination between origin and path. URLs are still shown at the top of the browser’s page as part of the UI design. It is still done that way because of three reasons all for the users: so they can see who is talking to them, so they can know where they are in a website and can surf by modifying the URL and so they can share the link.

So users can see who is talking to them

When the user want to find you for the first time on the internet, most likely he or she will use a search engine, because they won’t probably know the origin. Unconsciously, they expect that the top result to be what they are really looking for. If they can’t consider the top result is the right one, then most likely you already lost the battle of security.

It is very important for your customers to know who is talking to them on the Web and you can really use the search engines in your favour.

When they revisit your website, they usually start to write the name in the bar and wait for it to be autocomplete or to come back to the search engine. If they end up on a website using a link, they look at the URL and try to remember if they saw it before and if it was the same as the last time they have been here from a search engine. This path is somehow secure, but not all your visitors pay attention to this detail.

Know your users. Nowadays, most of them come from mobile devices. Not all of them are that accustomed with what is really going on the internet. They are used to logos and apps and now they are being shown a box containing https:// and www.

So users can know where they are in a website and can surf by modifying the URL

There are billion of people who are going online for the first time and it is happening via mobile. Few know how to manually change the URLs, so we recommend you to better optimize for the majority which in some cases is 99%. Let the other 1% “hackers” try harder.

So users can share the link

Give them the SLICE (Linkability, Indexability, Composability and Ephemerality). These principles are the foundation of sharing. It is very important for your customers to share what they see on your website.

Going back to reason number one – assuming it is better offered by submitting they know your brand and knowing about reason number two is not quite in the preferences of the pixels users have on mobile, then we should ask ourselves if it is better for your business to have a new button in the website so users can share the link or at list copy it.

As a conclusion, you need to know that your users need a way to share what they see and this may be difficult for those who go online for the first time on mobile. Keep in mind that search engines help if you build your URLs having UI in mind.