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Managed Navigation and Friendly URLs in SharePoint Online Modern Sites
Question details
A SharePoint site owner wants to know if taxonomy-based managed navigation and friendly URLs can be used in modern communication sites without activating unsupported classic publishing features.
- Product
- SharePoint Online
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Organizing site content and building navigation menus dynamically using a managed metadata term set (taxonomy) in a modern SharePoint environment.
- Observed behavior
- The classic SharePoint Server Publishing feature is unsupported in modern communication sites, preventing the use of classic managed navigation and friendly URLs.
Verify whether your SharePoint site is a modern communication site or a classic publishing site, as navigation capabilities and supported web parts differ significantly between the two architectures.
Use Modern Navigation and Web Parts
Since classic managed navigation is not supported in modern communication sites, utilize modern features to manually structure navigation and dynamically filter content.
Microsoft does not support activating classic SharePoint Server Publishing features on modern communication sites to force friendly URLs. Instead, rely on modern navigation menus and dynamically filtered web parts to achieve similar content curation results.
Click 'Edit' on the site navigation menu on your modern communication site to manually add, edit, or rearrange links to your pages and resources.
Add the 'Highlighted Content' web part to a modern SharePoint page and configure its filter settings to display documents or pages based on specific managed metadata (taxonomy) tags.
Navigate to your Site Pages library, set up a new view, and filter it by your custom metadata columns to automatically gather related content into a single view.
Utilize a Classic SharePoint Publishing Site
If your organization absolutely requires friendly URLs and classic taxonomy-based managed navigation, you must deploy a classic site template instead of a modern site.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why can't I activate SharePoint Server Publishing on a modern communication site?
Modern communication sites are built on a new architecture that is incompatible with legacy publishing features. Activating classic publishing features on a modern site is unsupported by Microsoft and can break page layouts and site functionality.
Are friendly URLs supported in modern SharePoint Online sites?
No, friendly URLs generated by managed navigation term sets are strictly a classic publishing feature and do not apply to modern communication sites or team sites.
How can I automatically group content by taxonomy in a modern SharePoint site?
You can use the Highlighted Content web part to dynamically roll up content based on taxonomy tags, or you can create custom filtered views in a document or page library based on managed metadata columns.
Can I migrate my classic managed navigation directly to a modern communication site?
There is no direct, automated migration path for managed navigation to modern sites. You must manually recreate your site navigation structure using the modern site navigation editing interface.
