Customized Short Links
A customized short link URL is a descriptive, memorable, and pronounceable URL used to redirect a URL (web address) from one location to another. Short link URLs can be used in a multitude of places, such as social media posts, emails, print publications, webinars, briefings, and other offline activities such as presentations.
Fews.net content is often referenced in both online and offline activities. Customized short links can help us to manage redirects and avoid other challenges when sharing URLs for our webpages and files. Review the use case scenario below to consider the value of using customized short links.
Sample Use Case
A FEWS NET partner organization wants to share a fews.net document file link on their website or within a printed publication. The issue is FEWS NET posts frequent updates to the document and the partner organization wants to avoid the inconvenience and cost to maintain a valid link on their website or printed materials. FEWS NET can provide a customized short link URL to redirect to the file URL and manage updates to the file without breaking the link provided to the partner organization.
So, for example, let’s say the partner organization wants the link they use on their website or within a printed publication to deliver the latest Afghanistan IPC Minority report. For our example, we'll pretend FEWS NET uploaded a document to the fews.net website in October 2020 using the following filename.
fews-net-afghanistan-ipc-minority-report -202010.pdf
FEWS NET created and provided our partner organization with the following short link URL and pointed the redirect to the October document.
https://fews.net/afghanistan-ipc-minority-report
The redirect led to the October 2020 document file at the following URL.
https://fews.net/sites/default/files/fews-net-afghanistan-ipc-minority-report -202010.pdf
Now we'll pretend FEWS NET posted an update to the document on the fews.net website in November 2020 using the following filename.
fews-net-afghanistan-ipc-minority-report-202011.pdf
When uploading the new version of the document, the fews.net content editor submitted a request to the Web Team to update the short link URL to redirect to the new, November document version on the website.
Upon receiving the request, the Web Team updated the short link URL redirect for https://fews.net/afghanistan-ipc-minority-report to point to the new, November document file URL at:
https://fews.net/sites/default/files/fews-net-afghanistan-ipc-minority-report-202011.pdf
Because FEWS NET supplied our partner organization with the short link redirect and steps were followed to update the redirect link to point to the new file, the partner organization is spared the need and cost to update their website or printed materials to point to the updated document. The updated short link redirect maintains their access to and delivery of the most recent fews.net document file.
Short Link Guidelines
There are three guidelines to follow for using custom short link URLs.
Use When Necessary. You do not need to use a custom short link URL for every link you share.
Be Clear. Always use full words to describe the content. For people to trust the link, they need to have an idea of where the link will bring them. Use words that describe the webpage’s or media file’s content.
Ensure the custom shortlink URL aligns with our URL SEO strategy. FEWS NET custom short links should follow our Best Practices for Web and SEO with respect to SEO Best Practices for URLs and File Naming Best Practices.
Requesting a Custom Short Link URL
To request a custom short link redirect to a fews.net webpage or file URL, please submit a Helpdesk ticket that includes the following information.
The full published fews.net URL you want the short link to redirect to.
Provide a suggested custom short link URL that aligns with our SEO strategy. (Please review our SEO Best Practices for URLs and our File Naming Best Practices.) The Web team will review the suggested link for SEO compliance and verify the URL is unique.
The date by which you need the redirect to be in place.
Requesting an Update to an Existing Short Link URL
If the short link URL leads to a document file that will continue to be updated, the short link must be updated to point to the new document URL. In this use case, you must submit a new Helpdesk request to update the short link URL to point to the new fews.net URL. Please submit a Helpdesk ticket that includes the following information.
The existing custom short link URL.
The new published fews.net URL you want the short link to point to.
The date by which you need the existing custom short link to redirect to the updated content.