URL standards for 188体育

You must meet these standards when creating URLs to be used on 188体育

188体育 URLs are designed to be user friendly, and to follow a consistent, predictable, format.

These standards apply to 188体育 and its sub-domains.

URLs on 188体育 must follow these rules:

  • URLs always need to be clear, unambiguous, easy to read, easy to type and easy to share

  • URLs should be in lower case

  • URLs should align with the title of the page

  • URLs must use words and should not contain acronyms, unless the acronym is very well known or it鈥檚 an acronym of an organisation with a long name

  • dashes should be used to separate words within URLs so they are easy to read - for example, www.gov.uk/set-up-business (another version without hyphens can be created if the URL is designed to be read aloud, like on a TV or radio advert)

  • articles (a, an, the) and other superfluous words should not be used. For example, use /benefits or /benefits-guides rather than /a-guide-to-benefits

  • URLs should use the verb stem, where possible. For example, /apply instead of /applying

  • URLs should be based on user need rather than the (current) name of a policy, scheme or service, which might change. For example, the URL www.gov.uk/advertise-job is intended for people who want to advertise a job on the Department for Work and Pensions鈥� (DWP) Find a job service

  • include the year when using a short URL for one-off promotion of an annual event like www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/budget-2020

  • trailing slashes should not be used when sharing or printing URLs - it鈥檚 bad for search engine optimisation (SEO). For example, use www.gov.uk/your-url-here rather than www.gov.uk/your-url-here/

  • you must not use a 188体育 short URL to redirect a user to a non-government site

Campaign sites

You might need a campaign site if you are promoting a particular topic or scheme to users - for example, https://accessibility.campaign.gov.uk. Campaign sites must follow the 188体育 URL standards.

It鈥檚 okay to not use dashes to separate words in a campaign site URL, but you should consider whether the URL is still easy to read without dashes.

If you are promoting your campaign page offline, you might need a short or 鈥榝riendly鈥� URL.

Short or 鈥榝riendly鈥� URLS

You might need to share or promote government information and services offline, for example in letters, on posters, or on TV. Where this is the case, it鈥檚 helpful if the URL is especially memorable and easy to say or type. Ask GDS to set up a short URL.

Organisation pages

Each government department, agency or arm鈥檚 length body on 188体育 can have a single short URL for use when promoting itself.听

This URL should use the shortest version of the organisation鈥檚 name in common use. This should usually be words, like www.gov.uk/home-office for the Home Office.

You should only use an acronym if either:

  • it is very well known, like www.gov.uk/dwp for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
  • the organisation has a long name, like www.gov.uk/ofdia for the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes (OfDIA)

High profile groups follow the same standards as those for full organisations. For example, the short URL for Border Force, a high profile group of the Home Office, is www.gov.uk/border-force.听

Other groups incorporate the name of the parent organisation. For example, a group that is part of the Environment Agency (EA) takes the short URL www.gov.uk/ea/clear-info.

Top level redirects

Top level redirects are short URLs which exist at www.gov.uk/url (and contain just one forward slash).

Due to the large amount of content that already exists at the top level of 188体育, only a limited number of redirects will be allowed here. Requests are considered on a case-by-case basis.

Ask GDS to set up a short URL. If you鈥檙e requesting a top level redirect, you鈥檒l need to give evidence that there is a user need for one.

Service sub-domain URLs

Start pages for 188体育 transactional services will be on 188体育 and need to follow the URL standards.

The transactional part of the service will usually not be hosted on 188体育. The service will exist on a 188体育 sub-domain, formatted as 鈥榮ervice-name.service.gov.uk鈥�. There is more guidance in the service manual on getting a service domain name. You鈥檒l agree the URL with GDS once you鈥檝e passed your alpha assessment.