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Stable, unique URLs: URLs and changed content

Dynamically generated URLs should continue to refer to the same content when content is changed or added.

Guideline R-pd.4.2

An example

A new website shows a link to the latest news messages on the home page. Each item has its own unique URL which may look like: http://thelatestnews.org/archive/message/1330.

Then something goes wrong; the content manager adds a new message to the home page using the CMS (Content Management System) and as a result, all links skip one digit. The same message now has the URL http://thelatestnews.org/archive/message/1329. Following this link, yields the correct response from the database. However, if the previous URL was bookmarked, indexed by a search engine, or linked from another site the correct message is no longer easy to .

Web developers who build such systems must make sure dynamically generated URLs must be accessible at all times.


Web Guidelines version 1.3, November 2007.