Creating Pages

Make sure you know what’s already on your site before you add new pages. Often, websites’ content becomes stale and redundant because different staffers have added new content rather than pruning and updating what’s already there.

Site structure and information architecture should be kept in mind when creating new pages. Don’t just create pages in the root or any random location; think about your target audience and where they might be looking for your new content, as well as the existing site structure and where your content might best fit.

We don’t recommend creating pages more than 3-4 levels deep, as this makes content less findable and navigation menus unnecessarily complicated. If you find yourself with a very complex site structure, it might be helpful to break off certain sections into a subsite.

We are always happy to offer feedback and guidance! Contact us if you have questions or wish to set up a meeting.

Page URLs

The URL (aka URI or Permalink) is the address that appears in your browser’s address bar, and the way that users get to your site. URLs are automatically created by WordPress based on page title, so generally you do not need to worry about them unless a page title changes significantly. You can change it in the page edit window directly below the title (refer to “Moving Pages” guidelines below).

  • URLs should be meaningful/semantic as much as possible
  • If WordPress appends a number to the end of a URL (e.g. students-2) this means there is already a page of the same name in the same place in the site hierarchy. If you can’t find it in published pages, look in the trash or the media library (check the file URL).

Moving Pages

If you move a page from its original location, the URL will change. If a user then tries to visit the old URL, WordPress will try to find the appropriate content within the site. One of three things will happen:

  1. The user will be successfully redirected to the desired content, after a short delay.
  2. The user will get a 404 (Page Not Found) error.
  3. The user will be redirected to the wrong content.

To make sure the user gets the right content in the shortest time possible, when moving website content around it is best to notify the webmaster so that a permanent redirect to the new content can be created, OR:

  1. Create a new page in the location in the site hierarchy where you want to move the content
  2. Edit the old page and cut and paste content from the old location to the new
  3. On the old page, create a redirect to the new page by copy/pasting the new page URL into the URL field in the “Page Links To” pane