Page Name (File Name)

How to Name Your Pages

As you build your website, odds are you’re already attempting to find unique page names that relate to your content as well as provide a novel experience for the reader or customer. Instead of naming one page “Services,” you may name it “What We Provide,” or something similar. Not only is the page name what a person sees when they view the menu or page bar across the top of your website, but it is also what is present in the URL box.

Let’s say you’re a daycare provider in Florida, and your website is called www.littlelovesflorida.com. If you want to name a page specific to what pricing options your daycare provides, you would add an extra page and name it something like “Pricing.” Fairly simple, right? If you format your URL properly, the web page URL should now read www.littlelovesflorida.com/pricing. Not only does this make finding your information easy, but it also includes the keywords people would be searching for in Google or other search engines. This is where your page name can boost your website and business.

Page Names vs. Headers vs. Titles

Page names are usually considered the header of a page, that bold and large text at the top of an article or information. However, headers and page names can differ slightly. For example, if you’re operating www.littlelovesflorida.com, you may have a page named “Blog,” or www.littlelovesflorida.com/blog, but then head the page “Daily Daycare Blog,” which is what shows up at the top when you begin to read the content. It is also important to note that page titles are entirely different from page names. In HTML, the coding language that every website is composed of,is a vital aspect a page’s makeup. Without it, search engines won’t even know what to call your website, it will just be called “Untitled.” Think of a book without a title. Then, think of your page names as the chapter titles within a book. They can just be numbered—page names are not as vital as titles in regards to HTML. Regarding SEO, however, page names are incredibly useful.

Page Names and SEO

We’ve established that search engine optimization is the process by which you maximize the content of your website to align with searches on major search engines. For example, if you have Little Loves Daycare in Florida, you of course name your website “www.littlelovesflorida.com,’ which means that people should find you if you they search for your daycare name.

However, what if people want to search for “daycare in Florida”? This is where keywords come into play, and this is how you can use your page names to work with you. For example, you can name your home page “Little Loves Daycare in Florida,” and the URL would read “www.littlelovesflorida.com/little-loves-daycare-florida.” If you perform a basic keyword analysis using Google Analytics or another tool, you may find that “afterschool care,” “home daycare,” “newborn care” or some other, similar keywords are more commonly searched for in your area. Using this information, you can name different pages using those keywords and phrases. For example, name a page “Newborn Care,” (www.littlelovesflorida.com/newborn-care) and another “Afterschool Care,” (www.littlelovesflorida.com/afterschool-care). Then, when someone searches using these keywords, they are not just finding your main page content, but they are finding the pages you have created that are directly linked to what they are looking for. You’re cutting out the need for someone to search through your site to find what they need, and providing a direct link instead. When people browse through a search engine, they only click on what relates to their search. The easier you make it for them to find your information, the more likely you are to have a conversion (sale, customer, new client, etc.).

Different Types of Sites

Page names are especially useful when you have an inventory of pages, products, or content that people may want to browse through. If you sell toys on your website, naming your pages correctly in the menu, as well as in the URL, will help users find your site based on the keywords you’ve chosen. If you are a blogger with a large following, naming pages based on the types of articles/blogs you’ve written will help people find the information they seek much faster, and allow people using a search engine to find your information much easier. Page names are not only useful for SEO purposes, but also for organization and user experience.

File Naming Convention

When talking about page names, it’s necessary to discuss File Naming Convention (FNC). This is how you keep track of your pages (files) in your websites, and what system you use for naming things. To clarify, if you have www.littlelovesflorida.com, you don’t want each page name to have a different format, like www.littlelovesflorida.com/daycare_pricing1 and www.littlelovesflorida.com/newborn-care. It’s important when naming files and pages, to be concise and consistent. There are a few tips you should keep in mind when setting up your pages and FNC:

• Keep the name as relevant to the content as possible
• Do not overload with keywords, only use what is relevant
• Use a hyphen (-), not an underscore (_), to separate words
• Try to keep your keywords the same in HTML (title) and the URL (name)
• Aim for three to four words in the extension (www.littlelovesflorida.com/daycare-pricing)

As with most aspects of SEO, the page name is one necessary part of a website that you can pack and reinforce as much as possible to help your campaign. It also keeps your website neat and user-friendly, which means that people are more likely to trust and interact with your website and business. After all, “What’s in a name?” What you name your pages can help people find your information much faster, and will make it much relatable to their individual searches.