Naming URLs (web addresses)

When you create a Basic Page or Webform, you will need to create the URL (address) of the page. (This is done automatically for Events). Here’s how to do that:

• First, do not enter http://www.tyndale.ca/, or any part of it. You will be creating the part of the URL that comes after this.

Url Structure

Notice what section of the site your page is in

Each site section has its own sub-URL, which you must include before your page’s unique URL name.

For example, the main page of the registrar is tyndale.ca/registrar. URLs in this section all begin with registrar/, e.g. registrar/course-offerings. The URL of a new page in the Registrar section would be registrar/[my-page-url].

Think about the structure of information

Web content is organized in a hierarchical structure, and the URLs of individual pages correspond to that structure.

In your site section, you may have several main pages, which usually have top-level menu links in your section-specific sidebar menu.

Some of those pages may in turn be the parent page of a page or pages which contain further information related to the parent page. The URL of each sub-page then contains the site section URL piece as well as the URL piece(s) of its parent page(s) before its own unique URL name.

For example, the Accessibility Services section (http://www.tyndale.ca/accessibility-services) has a top-level page called “Information for Students” whose URL is accessibility-services/students and which has a top-level menu item. Under this menu item are links to pages with information for students. Their URLs all begin with accessibility-services/students, e.g. the Services page at accessibility-services/students/services.

This can be thought of like folders on a computer. Tyndale.ca is the top-level folder, and within this folder are sub-folders that organize files more specifically. Finally, the page-specific part of the URL corresponds to the name of a file.

If you’re unclear about any of this, please contact the webteam for help.

Constructing URLs

URLs should be as brief as possible

One or two words per URL section is best. Short URLs are easier for users to remember, understand, and type.

Use only the most relevant words

Some common examples: for a contact page, the URL should be “[my-site-section]/contact”, not “[my-site-section]contact-us”. The URL for an About page should be “about”, not “about-us”.

Do not include words such as and, at, for, the, but, etc.

Separate words in your URL with hyphens

The standard for Tyndale URLs is to separate words with hyphens (dashes): e.g. student-life/worship-chapel. URLs must not contain spaces, but likewise, don’t run words together.

No special characters or capital letters

Use only lowercase letters and numbers. This goes even for abbreviations or words which are normally capitalized, for example FAQ—write them in lowercase.

Do not include any special characters, such as @#$%^&*.