Closed mnorthuis closed 1 month ago
A vanity URL is a short, simple, memorable and readable URL that utilizes the existing domain (va.gov) and redirects users to a specific page of the va.gov site.
A “shortened URL” is a short, simple URL, but is generally made up of a randomized set of characters. VA does not currently provide a URL shortener service. We also do not recommend using external shortening services (i.e. bitly.com) as they can often be blocked and not always trusted by Veterans.
About vanity URLs
When to use a vanity URL
When not to use a vanity URL:
Guidance for choosing a vanity URL
[H2]Vanity URLs A vanity URL is a short, simple, memorable, and readable URL that utilizes the existing domain (va.gov) and redirects users to a specific page of the va.gov site.
A “shortened URL” is also a short URL, but is generally made up of a randomized set of characters. VA does not currently provide a URL-shortener service. We do not recommend using external URL-shortener services (i.e. bitly.com or tinyurl.com) as they are often blocked and not always trusted.
[H3]About vanity URLs
[H3]When to use a vanity URL
[H3]When not to use a vanity URL:
[H3]Guidance for choosing a vanity URL
[H2] Vanity URL requests and implementation process Vanity URL requests must be submitted to VA.gov Information Architecture for validation, approval, and implementation.
[action link]Submit a vanity URL request on GitHub
@erinrwhite would love your feedback
My goal is to tighten this guidance so it discourages vanity URL requests for anything other than large campaigns.
@mnorthuis This draft is looking good - I think the criteria are helpful. Were you hoping to pull this out as a child page under URLs, or leave as part of that parent URLs page?
Let's pull it out as a child page.
@erinrwhite The proposed guidance documented above is good to go and can be published as a child page of the URL guidance in VADS - we will have to remove the existing guidance form the main URL page.
PR created! Combining efforts with the sub-URL guidance in #88407
Vanity URLs guidance updated - over to @mnorthuis for sharing w/teams
communicated out, closing issue
Update: Tighten rules around when we will or will not issue a vanity URL. Tie this into redirect guidance, which also refers to "claiming URLs".
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