URL standards for Yukon.ca

Yukon.ca URLs are designed to be naturally user (and SEO) friendly and to follow a consistent, predictable format. These guidelines set out how URLs should be constructed and our approach to setting up additional URLs for marketing purposes.

These standards apply to Yukon.ca and all other public-facing services that fall within the scope of the standard.

Yukon.ca URL style

The style for Yukon.ca URLs is that:

• URLs always need to be clear, unambiguous, easy to read, easy to type and easy to share
• all URLs must be in lower case
• URLs must use words and should not contain abbreviations such as acronyms, wherever possible
• dashes should be used to separate words within URLs so they are easy to read. For example, https://yukon.ca/find-hospital-or-health-centre.
• articles (a, an, the) and other superfluous words should not be used. For example, use /benefitsor /benefits-guide rather than /a-guide-to-benefits
• URLs should use the verb stem, where possible. For example, /apply instead of /applying
• each page must have a URL which is as short, memorable and as unambiguous as possible, especially if a URL is going to be referred to offline
• URLs should be based on user need rather than the (current) name of a policy, fund or service, which might change.

Campaign pages

Trailing slashes should not be used when sharing or printing URLs, or for providing 3rd parties with links to Yukon.ca content. For example, use yukon.ca/nice-url-here rather than yukon.ca/nice-url-here/

Yukon.ca campaign pages exist to provide supporting digital content for campaign and marketing activity. These URLs need to be aligned with the title of the marketing campaign. They should be as short as possible and contain only lowercase a to z characters

Short URLs on Yukon.ca

• In some situations, short URLs are needed. Some government information and services get promoted offline. Where this is the case, it’s helpful if the URL is especially memorable and easy to say or type. If a URL is going to be said aloud it may make sense to request a short URL. By default, short URLs do not use hyphens. Example: yukon.ca/emergencies.
• Find out how to request a short URL on a Yukon.ca page.

External redirects

A Yukon.ca URL must not be used to directly promote any content or service that is not available on the Yukon.ca platform. A Yukon.ca URL must not be used to redirect a user to a non-Yukon.ca URL.