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I like to leave all the words in URL patterns. I don't like when you create content with a title like "I am using this" and you get a url like /using.
I much prefer a URL that is readable, such as /i-am-using-this (and it's more predictable) (and I think works better for breadcrumbs and other heirarchical nav items, but I could be wrong here - certainly leaving all the words in will do no harm to breadcrumbs/menus/etc)
These standards apply to the GOV.UK website and its subdomains. Separate standards apply to the wider use of the gov.uk domain, for example by local authorities.
Discussing in Merge Tuesday:
@willguv is keen to make this change for new sites.
Activity
willguv commentedon Mar 26, 2025
Hi again @dedavidson is this something you could create a PR for?
markconroy commentedon Mar 26, 2025
I like to leave all the words in URL patterns. I don't like when you create content with a title like "I am using this" and you get a url like
/using.I much prefer a URL that is readable, such as
/i-am-using-this(and it's more predictable) (and I think works better for breadcrumbs and other heirarchical nav items, but I could be wrong here - certainly leaving all the words in will do no harm to breadcrumbs/menus/etc)willguv commentedon Mar 26, 2025
@markconroy it removed a few selected words - eg and, the - in line with Gov.uk work
markconroy commentedon Mar 27, 2025
For note, here's what we are currently removing:
a, an, as, at, before, but, by, for, from, is, in, into, like, of, off, on, onto, per, since, than, the, this, that, to, up, via, withIf it was my choice, I would not remove any, but happy to go with the consensus.
dedavidson commentedon Mar 27, 2025
@willguv yes will get that done
dedavidson commentedon Jun 5, 2025
ignore_words: 'a, an, and, are, as, at, before, but, by, for, from, get, if, is, in, into, it, like, of, off, on, onto, or, per, since, so, than, the, this, that, to, up, via, when, where, with, you'This is what we changed pathauto.settings.yml to be.
It added and, are, get, if, it, or, so, when, where, you
finnlewis commentedon Jul 15, 2025
gov.uk advice: https://insidegovuk.blog.gov.uk/url-standards-for-gov-uk/
Of interest:
Discussing in Merge Tuesday:
@dedavidson where did you get your list of words from? The guidance on https://insidegovuk.blog.gov.uk/url-standards-for-gov-uk/ does not seem to have a full list.
Also, we should document this for councils to be aware of how to change it.
willguv commentedon Jul 15, 2025
Link from @andybroomfield showing where this is changed /admin/config/search/path/settings
dedavidson commentedon Jul 21, 2025
@finnlewis the list of additional words came from the work at Dumfries & Galloway.
[-]Remove conjunctions from URLs[/-][+]Write doc to remove conjunctions from URLs[/+]