Guideline

A Web site is a combination of Web pages grouped loosely into subject categories that are normally displayed as a menu.

Classifying Web pages

Defining the content of a Web page is tightly linked to the planning and content collection and preparation sections of the Web Guide (see section 3. Planning and 4. Content collection and preparation). If you have closely followed the guidelines in those sections, you will already have a firm idea about your content.

For example, the World Summit on Food Security site, has a collection of Web pages covering a range of subjects, including pre-summit events, round tables, multimedia, information for participants, etc. which have been gathered under main subject categories.

Labeling Web pages

Web pages should be labeled with easy to understand terms that indicate to the user the subject that the page covers. Web page labels that are common to the majority of FAO Web sites include:

1. Who we are;
2. Frequently Asked Questions; and
3. Contacts

It is important to keep the titles of Web pages short, using easily understandable terminology. Try to avoid acronyms or FAO specific terminology.

Subject categories

On Web sites, a collection of Web pages is normally gathered within a subject category. As an example, highlighted below are the subject categories that were created for the Livestock, Environment and Development Web site.

	Subject category
	LEAD Home	Tools	Themes	Resources
Web Pages	Regional networks	Livestock and Environment Toolbox	Climate change	Publications
	China	Participatory land use planning	Deforestation	E-conferences
	India	Livestock development	Drylands	Electronic newsletter
	Russia	Manure management	Water & soil pollution
	South & Central America	Nutrient balance
		Fossil fuels
		Livestock densities

The cardinal rule on the naming and selection of subject categories is to try to keep them as generic and simple as possible. There are three good reasons for this:

1. usability: users will be able to immediately understand the type of information they are about to view;
2. loosely related types of content can be easily gathered together under one term; and
3. having broad terms helps to limit the number of content categories to five or six - more can confuse the user.

The following categories are common to FAO Web sites:

About us Programmes Projects Resources Partners Areas of work Partnerships

Services Activity areas Materials Activities by country Activities by region Projects by region Projects by country