Execnology
Technology for Executives

Read this if: You need to make decisions on the appearance and format of your site URL to optimize traffic to your web site.

Every web page of every web site has a uniform resource locator (URL) that a browser uses to locate a particular page.  The specific components of a URL can help or hurt your web site performance.  Often, URL components are set arbitrarily by system administrators who don’t understand how the URL can affect site performance.  This article (part 1) breaks down the basic parts of the URL so you can make an informed decision on the URL of your site to maximize the benefit.  Part 2 will dive deeper into the URL to discuss dynamic URL components and their impact.

Below is a diagram that connects the parts of a URL to the the web browsing process.  Each component is numbered and described here:

1. http:// describes the protocol used for the connection.  In this case, http refers to the protocol that a web browser uses to talk with a web server.  If the user was requesting a file with an FTP client, the URL might have started with ftp:// instead.  This will always be http or https (encrypted) for web browsing.
2. www identifies the resource within your domain.  This could be a subdomain or an individual server.  This is most commonly set as www, which points to your web server.  If you had two servers, one for web pages and one for videos you might give them the URL’s http://www.acme.com (for web pages) and http://video.acme.com (for videos).  As you can see from the URL’s, these generic names don’t mean anything without your domain name included.
3. acme.com is your domain name.  This uniquely identifies your organizations resources and qualifies the resource name in #2 above.
4. products is most commonly a subfolder within your web server.  There can be several levels of subfolders separated by a / (forward slash) as in http://www.acme.com/products/2008/tools/.
5. list.html is the name of the web page in the products folder on the server.

The components of the URL contain keywords that are arguably as critical as content on your pages.  In the example above, we’ve selected names for the folder and file that will help search engines to classify this content and serve this page above less important pages.  For example, this page would rank higher in Google for the keywords “acme product list” than it would if the URL was http://www.acme.com/stuff/page.html.  Along with a comprehensive search engine optimization (SEO) program, this is going to bring more site visitors looking for your specific content.

Stay tuned for the part 2 where we will dive deeper into dynamic URL’s and discuss how to optimize them to maximize site traffic.

Read this article if: You are building a new or redesigning an existing web site and your target audience is very web savvy and/or it’s desirable for your company to be positioned as a technology leader.

What is AJAX? AJAX is a modern development technique using common web site programming languages (HTML/CSS/XML/JavaScript) that allows dynamic updates of a web page without reloading the entire page.  AJAX is used to create highly interactive and engaging web pages such as Google Maps.  Web pages employing AJAX technology often support rich user interface features resembling desktop sofware.

Why use AJAX? AJAX is best suited for creating interactive web sites that target Millennials and/or web savvy vistitors.  This target audience expects sites to use this type of interface and would view sites not using these techniques as outdated.  The advanced interface components used by AJAX sites can often be less intuitive for older visitors who expect a more traditional web site interface (underlined text links and grey buttons).  AJAX is best avoided for sites targeting baby boomers.

When use AJAX? AJAX is rarely used for every page of a web site.  It is particularly useful for developing web pages that require a high degree of user interaction, such as forms (registration) or configuration tools (design your new computer).  Informational pages with text content should avoid AJAX, especially pages that you want ranked highly in search engines.  AJAX can often hurt search engine rankings so keep it on the interactive pages.

AJAX Pros:

• Positions your company as a technology leader
• Solves complex interface problems
• Contributes to highly engaging and interactive web sites
• Can reduce network bandwidth usage and improve web site performance
• Does not require any special web server technology

AJAX Cons:

• Requires a development team or agency experienced with AJAX
• Longer development time and increased costs
• Can hurt search engine rankings on pages using AJAX
• Can be confusing to less savvy web site visitors

If your project is handled internally, you should carefully consider whether or not you should be using AJAX.  It’s often hard for Information Technology departments to make objective recommendations in this area.  If you use an agency, their strategist should be able to make a recommendation that is consistent with the information in this article.  Regardless of who is building your site, if you get information from your team that is inconsistent with the information in this article you should consider bringing in an expert to make the call.