| Have you ever viewed a web page URL that read like this http://www.suchandsuch.com/pts/publicGUI/default.aspx?pguid=345bcb10-6185-4feb-b8da-93905f38c978.
Pretty ugly, isn't it. Here's basically what it all means.
- www.suchandsuch.com is the domain name for the web site.
- /pts/publicGUI/default.aspx is the file name of the web page to be displayed.
- .aspx is the file extension that tells a hacker the page is coded using Microsoft .NET.
- pguid=345bcb10-6185-4feb-b8da-93905f38c978 is the query string that pulls actual page content from a database.
So why should you care about all that?
The answer is you shouldn't and neither should a citizen that is trying to view the page. Here are some of the problems with this type of URL.
-
Long technical URLs are not easy for site visitors to remember,
-
They can not be easily referenced in your offline print materials,
-
Media is less likely to mention the web page in their stories, and finally
-
Search engines hate them.
Civic Communicator solves this problem by replacing these lengthy technical URLs with people friendly URLs.
Here's an example the following URLs reference the exact same page, but the second one is much easier to remember.
-
-
Civic Communicator's people friendly URLs offer the following benefits:
-
Easily remembered by citizens, stakeholders, project team members, and clients,
-
You can easily reference specific pages in your newsletters, press releases, surveys, and etc.
-
Television and radio reporters are more likely to mention the web pages most relevant to their story when the URL is short and sweet.
-
Hackers won't be able to determine the programming language by just looking at the file extension.
-
Search engines are better able to accurately index your web site.
Every page in this web site (CivicCommunicator.com) incorporates user friendly URLs. That is why you see the .htm extension rather than the .aspx or.asp extension that is hiding the background.
For more information please call 509-209-9251.
Regards,
Carl Stearns, AICP
|
