URLs are an important factor for both search engine optimization (SEO) and user-experience, and an important factor to consider when building your site structure and navigation scheme. For larger websites, advanced planning is required.
Internet domain name policy: queensu.ca
From the policy:
"The Internet identity for Queen’s University and its faculties, departments and units is based on the .queensu.ca internet Domain Name. All websites and web services that are provided by members of the Queen’s University community as part of their official functions, and as part of the mission of the institution, shall fall within the queensu.ca domain and sub domain structure or have received an exception to do otherwise and be logged in the Domain Registry List maintained by Information Technology Services."
Crafting the URL text
Human readable with keywords
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Use "human-readable" URLS – i.e. a string of real words – not abbreviations or acronyms.
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Use a hyphen to separate words. Do not use underscore, as search engines do not recognize them as word separators. Do not use other special characters, as this may cause the links to fail.
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Ensure that every URL pathway includes at least one distinct keyword that best describes the content of the page.
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Use lower-case letters only. Upper-case letters can fail on some operating systems.
Organized structure
Revealing your site architecture via your URL "path" or folder structure can orient users and enhance usability for users, and provides a great deal of information to search engines. This means that "child" pages in a site should include the url path of its "parent" page. A structured URL helps both users and search engines understand where they are on your site. It also reveals what you have determined is the most important content on your website.
Shorter is better
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Short addresses with 2-3 unique and easy-to-understand keywords look attractive and are much easier to remember and enter manually in a browser. They also look better on the page, should you need to include a URL in print material.
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While the maximum length of a URL is more than 2000 characters (i.e. a browser can process a long address), longer URLs have a negative impact on search engines. Aim for 50-75 characters as a maximum.
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While WebPublish will automatically generate a URL for each page based on its page title, be aware that this can lead to superfluous and repeating words, and create URLS that are longer than necessary.
Putting it all together:
Human readable, keyword-rich, organized, short
Consider a page nested at the third level website (i.e. the first is a parent of the second, and the second a parent of the third) where the subject matter is your dog:
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The heading/title of the first page or level is Meet My Dog. Including the site domain (not the Queen's domain in this example), the automatically generated URL would be www.sitename.ca/meet-my-dog (in WebPublish, this is shown in the URL alias field in the editor area as "/meet-my-dog").
For this page, shorten the automated URL path for this page to "/my-dog" -
If the heading of the second page or level is Tricks My Dog Can Do, the auto-generated URL path for this page would be /tricks-my-dog-can-do. But you already have "my-dog" in the parent level URL, so shorten this to /tricks.
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For the third page or level, titled Awards My Dog Has Won for Tricks, the auto-generated URL path would be awards-my-dog-has-won-tricks. (Note that the URL generator has dropped the conjunction "for"). Again, you already have some of these keywords in the inherited URL path, so you could shorten this to /awards.
In the end, you have shortened the URL considerably while maintaining a human-readable URL path that contains strong keywords that describe the content of each page along the way.
| Before | www.sitename.ca/meet-my-dog/tricks-my-dog-can-do/awards-my-dog-has-won-tricks | 75 characters |
|---|---|---|
| After | www.sitename.ca/my-dog/tricks/awards | 36 characters |
Linked documents
File names for linked documents should follow many of the same same principles as URLs in that they should be:
- human readable
- short
- free of special characters
- meaningful
- free of blank spaces
Spaces in a file name translate to "%20" when they go online. Rewrite them using hyphens between readable words before loading them to the serve.
Consider that linked documents may end up on a user's desktop of in a downloads folder. Prepending a file name with the letters "QU", for example, might be helpful to indicate a Queen's document. Including date details or version numbers in the file name (as well as in the document itself, of course) can also be helpful. The Records Management and Privacy Office provides further guidance on document naming.
Documents and usability
Please note that linking to documents is not the best way of delivering content online, as the formatting of documents pose accessibility and usability issues.
Image paths
Consider, as well, the naming of photo and illustration file names. Again, file names should be human readable, short, and free of special characters, and should include meaningful keywords.
URL Redirects
Whether you are simply moving content to a new page, revising your site architecture, or launching an entirely new site, it is important to plan for creating redirects for URLs that will no longer exist.