Shortcut Links (URLs): /go/ Directory Website Address Shortcuts - Web Team

This is an internal document for use by College Advancement and the Web Team. See explanation and purpose.

/go/ shortcuts:

• DO NOT use a trailing slash
• DO NOT use a filename extension

Contact Patrice Birkedahl in College Advancement or the Web Team to request a /go/ directory shortcut.

Explanation and Purpose

The main purpose of these /go/ directory shortcuts is to have short URLs (also referred to as tinyurls or tiny urls) to use on print materials (brochures, posters, ads, …), especially for links to specific website pages. So, instead of using a long URL to a specific web page, a /go/ directory shortcut can be used.

We elected to use shortcut URLs instead of subdomains because:

• They prevent possible confusion by site visitors who enter "www." in front of all URLs (i.e., www.webadvisor.ohlone.edu and webadvisor.ohlone.edu are not the same - "www.xxxxx.ohlone.edu" can be setup to be the same but that requires additional server configuration).
• They use the "www.ohlone.edu" domain name which is good for branding.
• They can be used in print materials for long URLs (such as www.ohlone.edu/org/peermentors/welcomeday.html) or complicated or unclear URLs (such as www.ohlone.edu/org/counseling/electcounsel.html).
• Keywords can be placed in the body of the shortcut page to provide better search engine results.
• "Hits" for the shortcut page can be tracked by the website statistics program on the main web server .
• Turn-around time for setup, updating, and maintenance is faster than requesting subdomains be setup.