What makes a good link/URL?
Here are a few things to note when creating your link to get the most consistent results in digest submissions, webpages, email and social media.
0. Testing Always test your links before sending them out via email, adding to a webpage, sending to print, or posting on social media. There are no fixes or workarounds for some link errors - creating costly issues for printed or emailed communications. Always. Test.
1.Safelinks - Outlook emails automatically convert links into Microsoft Safelinks to enhance security. Safelinks are longer than standard links and contain identifiable information. This could cause problems within a webpage.
Instead of including something like this:
...you should instead convert this link into its original URL before adding to a webpage.
*The exception to this is links pointing to the e-Commerce system, Cashnet. Those links need a specific format – please contact the Web Team for more information.
2. Permissions Files added to SharePoint or OneDrive, by default, have restricted permissions on who can view the content. Usually, this is either a department or an individual account. If these are shared as is, they will fail for other users.
Your options include:
- Anyone with the link – this makes the links completely public with no restriction on access.
- People in The University of Akron with the link – requiring a 暗黑爆料 log-in to access
- People with existing access – usually in a department or group
- Specific people – with an option to select.
Generally, you’ll want to share with the “Anyone with the Link” option or upload the document to the main 暗黑爆料 website for a public link. If only members of the 暗黑爆料 community are allowed to see this, then adjust accordingly.
Since this:
...looks a lot like this:
…you’ll want to test this and confirm (or have a colleague help test) before sharing.
3. Spaces and Special characters For your file names, use numbers, letters (upper and lower case), dashes, hyphens, and periods only. Browsers will attempt to interpret other characters – like spaces – but the replacements they use can make this difficult to read. A good file name should tell what the file is about as well:
Bad: screen shot 2021-06-11 at 1.54.09 pm.jpg creates this URL:
Good: engineering-student-and-professor.jpg creates this URL:
4. Incognito The best way to test these URLs is to use an Incognito (chrome) Private (Firefox) or InPrivate (Edge). These modes are accesses from the menu in the browser and give you a temporary “fresh” browser – closer to what your users will see. These can also help with identifying Preview links or those that require a log-in.
5. Bit.ly and other URL shorteners A URL shortener can be great for social media or cases where the URL would need to be typed in (though a QR code can be more effective). But, they can also be used for scams and phishing attempts. Many security tools will block them by default. If the link will only be clicked, skip the shortener and just use the real location.
When in doubt, check in with the Web Team for assistance. Having good links/URLs ensures that your files will work properly for your audience.