Website Naming Conventions

This document provides guidance on file and page naming conventions within Cascade CMS, including best practices for accessibility, organization, and website maintenance. It outlines recommended standards for naming files and pages, explains why consistent naming conventions are important, and describes how improper naming can affect URLs and content management. The document also includes accessibility reminders for uploaded files, explains how Cascade handles duplicate file names, and provides

The naming conventions for files

Before uploading files to Cascade CMS, please ensure that file names follow CWU’s naming conventions. Consistent file naming helps improve organization, accessibility, and search engine readability.

File names should:

• Be all lowercase
• Use dashes (-) instead of spaces
• Avoid punctuation and special characters
• Avoid dates whenever possible
• Be descriptive and concise

Good Examples

student-resources-guide.pdf
financial-aid-checklist.docx
campus-map.jpg

Avoid

Student Resources Guide FINAL 2026!.pdf
Campus Map (Updated).jpg

---

Accessibility Reminders

All files uploaded to the website should meet accessibility requirements before publishing.

Please review files for:

• Proper heading structure
• Sufficient color contrast
• Meaningful link text
• Accessible tables
• Tagged PDFs
• Alternative text for meaningful images
• Readable document structure

Additional Reminders

• Files should be optimized for the web whenever possible.
• Individual file uploads should remain under 2 MB whenever feasible.
• Avoid uploading scanned PDFs that are not OCR-readable.
• Remove unnecessary or duplicate files before uploading.

For additional guidance, please review CWU’s digital accessibility resources and training materials.

 

The naming conventions for Cascade pages

Page names in Cascade CMS become part of the published website URL. Using clear and consistent naming conventions helps improve accessibility, usability, organization, and long-term website maintenance.

Naming Guidelines

• Use lowercase letters only.

  • Correct: student-resources

  • Incorrect: StudentResources

• Use hyphens (-) instead of spaces or underscores.

  • Correct: financial-aid

  • Incorrect: financial_aid or financial aid

• Keep page names short, descriptive, and meaningful.

  • Correct: transfer-admissions

  • Incorrect: page1

• Avoid special characters and punctuation.

  • Avoid: &, %, !, ?, #, (, )

• Avoid dates or version numbers unless necessary.

  • Prefer: employee-handbook

  • Avoid: employee-handbook-final-v2

• Use words that clearly describe the content of the page.

Examples

Good Example	Avoid
about-us	About Us
contact-information	contact_info
academic-calendar	calendar-final2
financial-aid-resources	page-new

 

Why are naming conventions important?

File naming conventions on the web are important because they support accessibility, search engine optimization (SEO), and long-term manageability of website content. Clear, descriptive, and consistently formatted file names help both users and systems better understand the purpose of a file, while also making content easier to maintain over time.

Accessibility
From an accessibility perspective, meaningful file names can improve the experience for users relying on assistive technologies and help content managers more easily identify and manage accessible documents, images, and media. Well-named files also reduce confusion when linking, downloading, or sharing content.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
For SEO, file names become part of a page’s URL structure and can provide useful context to search engines. Descriptive names that reflect the content of the file can improve search relevance and help users better understand links before clicking them.

File Management
Consistent naming conventions also improve website manageability by making files easier to organize, locate, update, and troubleshoot. Standardized practices—such as using lowercase letters, hyphens instead of spaces, and concise descriptive wording—help reduce errors, avoid broken links, and create a cleaner, more maintainable web environment across the institution.
 

What happens when multiple files have the same name?

When files with the same name are uploaded into Cascade CMS, Cascade automatically renames the newer file by appending a number to the file name (for example, name.pdf becomes name1.pdf). Because the file name is part of the URL, this changes the published web address of the file.

This can create inconsistent URLs, confusion when linking or sharing files, and difficulty replacing or managing documents later. Using unique, descriptive file names before uploading helps maintain clean and predictable URLs.

How to address this?
If you need to upload an updated version of a file while keeping the same file name and URL, follow these steps:

1. Move the old file to an _unpublish folder. This helps preserve the old asset temporarily while preventing it from remaining in active content areas.
2. Upload the updated file as a new asset using the same file name. Do not add a version number to the new file.
3. Because Cascade CMS tracks internal asset IDs rather than file URLs, links do not automatically update to the new file, even if the file name is the same.
4. Use the Relationships feature in Cascade CMS to identify where the old file was being used, then update or recreate those links so they point to the new file asset.
5. Once all links have been updated and tested, the old file in the _unpublish folder can be safely deleted if it is no longer needed.

Learn more about the difference between Internal vs External links