Recommendation 6.1.6 Discovery-level URLs are descriptive and less than 50 characters long
The New Zealand Web Standards 2.0 were released in March 2009 and replace the previous version, the New Zealand Government Web Standards 1.0 (below). See Meeting the standards for more information.
The Recommendation
Recommendation 6.1.6 - Discovery-level URLs are descriptive and less than 50 characters long.
Guide to this recommendation
A value of 50 characters is a “trade-off” figure. It is desirable to have the URL reasonably descriptive; however, too long (beyond 50 characters) becomes cumbersome and presents management/change issues with the URL.
Related Recommendation
6.1.5 - Avoid the usage of underscores in URLs
Rationale for this recommendation
A descriptive URL assists accessibility, by allowing the user to reasonably predict where the URL will lead.
URLs that are too long (beyond 50 characters) become cumbersome and present management/change issues with the URL.
