How to create SEO-friendly URLs with Django?

Improving the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of a website is crucial to garner better visibility and attract more traffic. URLs with significant keywords can make a big difference in SEO results. Django, a high-level Python web framework, allows developers to design SEO-friendly URLs.

The first step in creating SEO-friendly URLs involves designing an appropriate URL structure for your Django applications. The most standard way of doing this is by creating a URLs configuration module. Named “urls.py”, this module is typically located within an application directory and contains a mapping between URL patterns and views.

Django achieves this through its URL dispatcher. It’s the engine that handles all the URL routing for the application, matching requests with the correct view based on the URL patterns specified in your urls.py file.

Following is an example of a “urls.py” module::

```
from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [ path(‘’, views.post_list, name=‘post_list’), path(‘post//’, views.post_detail, name=‘post_detail’), path(‘post/new/’, views.post_new, name=‘post_new’),
]
```

In this example, you can see how Django is using clear and straightforward URLs for different views. “post//” will match any URL in the format of “post/1”, “post/2”, etc., where the integer represents the primary key (pk) of a specific post in the database. This kind of pattern is readable both for users and search engines, improving the SEO performance of the application.

Apart from creating URL patterns, Django also allows you to use slugs to increase the readability and SEO-friendliness of your URLs. A slug is a few keywords that describe a post or a page. Slugs are usually derived from the title of the page and are meant to improve the SEO of the page. Implementing slugs in Django requires creating a “slug” field in the model and adjusting URL patterns and views accordingly.

```
from django.db import models
from django.utils.text import slugify

class Post(models.Model): title = models.CharField(max_length=50) slug = models.SlugField(null=False, unique=True)

def save(self, *args, **kwargs): if not self.slug: self.slug = slugify(self.title) return super().save(*args, **kwargs) ```

Remember that SEO-optimized URLs give your users a sneak peek into the content of the page in the URL itself, thus increasing user interaction.

Sources:
1. Django URL dispatcher: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.2/topics/http/urls/
2. Django making queries: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.1/topics/db/queries/
3. Django models: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/topics/db/models/
4. Creating URL slugs with Django: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.2/ref/utils/#django.utils.text.slugify