Office of Communications

Careful page naming is one of the most fundamental aspects of improving your website's usability. Page naming involves three aspects: The page title or header, the menu label for that page and the URL (address).

Using simple and memorable names in a consistent way helps site visitors orient themselves quickly and return to the same location more easily.

Consider how easy it would be to say each URL over the phone. Keeping your directory names to single words that are easily remembered is known as a "Speaking URL."

For example:
www.princeton.edu/communications/services_resources/web_sites/
design_and_development/information_architecture

could be shortened to:
www.princeton.edu/communications/services/web/design/architecture

Also, speaking URLs help in search engine optimization, providing specific language to search engine spiders as they crawl your site looking for keywords.

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Having a logical naming convention helps visitors know where they are and how to return. One way to do this is to include similar language in your page directory name, menu link label and page header. Example: