Help:Choosing a URL/Web Address

In this article we'll be talking about choosing a good URL or web address for your new wiki.

What's a URL?
A URL is the abbreviation of 'Uniform Resource Locator', the global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web. To make it a little easier on everyone (and much easier to understand) we'll be referring to the URL as a 'web address' in this article.

Choosing a Web Address:
When you create a new wiki you will be asked to choose a web address. Although it is seprate from the wiki's sitename/title of your wiki, you can name it the same if that address is available. The web address falls before .wikia.com. It will look like this: http://webaddress.wikia.com.

It's important to choose a web address that identifies your wiki instantly and is easy for users to find. Below we go over pointers on how to choose a web address:


 * Choose a web address that easily identifies your wiki. This is important for many reasons -- one of them being that it will make it easy to search for.


 * Make it easy to remember. For example, The Harry Potter wiki is named harrypotter.wikia.com/, the Bacon wiki is bacon.wikia.com and so on.


 * A URL/web address can contain up to 67 characters - should it? That is entirely up to you - but studies show that shorter URL's/web addresses (15 letters or less) are easier to remember.


 * The address can contain numbers, periods and hyphens. But addresses with these characters are not often easy to remember. Also, all web addresses are lower case.


 * It's important to be unique, but don't be obscure - keep in mind you want users to find your wiki with ease.

Changing your Wiki's URL
Think long and hard about the web address you choose as you can not change it once you have entered in the final web address name. A wiki's web address can be changed (if the new web address is not taken), but it must be changed by Wikia Staff. If your request is granted, the new web address will become the default web address for your wiki. The old web address will redirect to the new web address for as long as until another user requests the old web address. So choose your web address wisely.

Next Pages

 * Learn about the wiki's sitename
 * Learn how to set the wiki's description

Further Help & Resources:
Founder/Admin code