Give your web documents filenames that are easy to work with. The names of your webpages should help the user find them, not hinder his journey through your website. Develop rules for naming web files, and apply them consistently to your site's webpages. Keep filenames short -- many webmasters tend to give downloadable documents (especially Acrobat and Microsoft Word files) excessively long filenames, such as "RatifiedProposaltoReviseReportingProcedure.pdf." Eliminate spaces from your filenames -- each space will be converted into a %20 in the file's URL -- and avoid capricious capitalization.

Nothing proclaims "amateur hour" louder than a webpage lacking a title. Always title your webpages. Use titles that describe the specific content of each page and avoid giving each constituent webpage in a website the same generic title (i.e. "Office of Information Technology"). Instead, you can give individual pages in a website titles beginning with a generic, departmental "prefix," such as "OIT WebDev Guides: Best Practices for Webmasters." Titles are especially important for search engines. Many search engines (including UMBC's) determine what a webpage is about in part based on the page's HTML title. Additionally, when a user uses a search engine, results -- or "hits" are typically displayed according to title. The screenshot to the right shows a webpage's title as it appears in a web browser.

Each of your website's directories should include an index.html file (or variant, such as index.htm), which will be displayed by default whenever someone visits http://www.umbc.edu/yourwebsite/yourdirectory/. If a web directory lacks an index file, its contents (including subdirectories) will be publically displayed for anyone to browse. If you do not want the contents of your web directories to be visible, remember to use index webpages. Click the thumbnail to the right to see an example screenshot of an open web directory as it appears in a browser.

Ensure that links within your webpage are valid before posting it online. If you move webpages to different directories, remember to update the appropriate links. Many UMBC websites feature lengthy "linkfarm" webpages that list numerous URLs that reference external content, news articles, for instance. Unfortunately, many of the hyperlinks appearing in such linkfarm pages become obsolete as websites shut down or shuttle content to other addresses. Periodically check all of your webpages for broken links. The World Wide Web Consortium offers a free, web-based Link Checker service that can quickly evaluate your website for broken links and other URL problems.

Users tend to drift away from webpages that are seemingly out of date in favor of more current sites. Consider applying timestamps to each or your webpages -- for instance, a consistently placed "Last modified on" label that will clearly identify the last time each page has been updated. Not only will the consistent use of timestamps allow users to immediately determine the "freshness" of your web content, such "last modified" tags will help you (as the webmaster) audit your website for currency.

As a webmaster, you'll inevitably encounter situations where crucial webpages are inadvertantly deleted, corrupted or otherwise go AWOL. If you catch missing webpages within a few weeks, OIT personnel may be able to restore your pages from storage tapes (which usually extend back 30 days). Contact the OIT Helpdesk to submit a restore request, and be sure to note the URLs of each web document you wish to have restored and the last date the missing documents existed.

Additionally, you should perform periodic backups of your entire website. Segregate your backed-up website copies according to date. One effective method for storing website backups is burning copies of your entire website to CD, dating each CD and storing your archive in chronological order in a CD binder or rack.