Loading ...In setting up a website, the URL is one of the most important elements. As Frank Bauer of Web Tuning Garage points out, webmasters need to think about the URL before they get their site up and running.
In an interview with WebProNews, Bauer advises webmasters to consider the following factors:
- What makes a quality URL?
- Canonicalization issues
- Site taxonomy
- Keywords
One of the most problematic areas with URLs is with canonicalization. Bauer said the most difficult canonicalization issue is “www” versus “non-www.”
As a way to avoid other obstacles, Bauer advises against exposing too much of your technology in regards to extensionless URLs, file names, and directories.
Ultimately, a domain needs to possess usable, typeable, and guessable qualities. Learn more about quality URLs in the above interview with Frank Bauer.
great interview, would have been nice to have more detail about the issues mentioned
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What are the answers to the questions raised? For example: http://www.example.com or example.com? Frank said you have to think about it, but gave no advice….
my advice would be to pick a canonical domain and use it consistently.
redirect all non-canonical requests using a HTTP 301 response.
in general and especially for new sites my preference is to go without the www. to save 4 meaningless characters – especially helpful when communicating your urls.
(for example: think about 136 characters of message in your tweet vs 140; think about vocalizing “double u double u double u dot” – or not)
regarding existing sites and large enterprises that already use “www.” the decision is a bit more complicated as there are other factors to consider.
my talk at PubCon just barely covered what i would consider to be the basics of URLs and it was over 20 minutes of material crammed into less than 15 minutes:
- URL structure
- URL quality and usage
- canonicalization issues and solutions
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just to clarify something in this post:
while in the video of the interview it sounds like i said “difficult”, i actually said:
the most typical canonicalization issue is “www” versus “non-www”
Ultimately, a domain needs to possess usable, typeable, and guessable qualities. Learn more about quality URLs in the above interview with Frank Bauer.
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