URLs are tiny promises

A good URL tells a reader roughly what waits on the other side. /blog/urls-are-promises/ is dull in exactly the right way.

Tools change. A site might begin in Eleventy, move to a hand-written folder, spend a season on GitHub Pages and eventually live on a small computer under a desk. The public addresses should not need to follow those changes.

Pick the shape first

Before choosing a generator, sketch the durable parts of the site:

• /blog/ for dated writing;
• /resources/ for documents that improve over time;
• /now/ for what has your attention;
• /events/ for gatherings; and
• /colophon/ for explaining how the site is made.

Eleventy’s permalink data lets each page state its public address explicitly. That makes the URL part of the content, rather than an accidental consequence of a folder structure.

A URL is a promise that you can change everything behind the address while keeping the address useful.