How to edit the URL or alias of a webpage

Owned by Jess Pietsch (Unlicensed)
Last updated: 19 Oct, 2023 by Hayley Stockall (Unlicensed)
3 min read

This guide covers when and how to edit an alias, which is the string of text that appears after your website domain.

For example, in the URL ‘https://www.vic.gov.au/department-government-services’, the alias is ‘/department-government-services’. This part can be edited in the content management system (CMS).

On this page

How aliases work

When you create a page and save it as a draft, the alias is automatically created based on the page title (with words like ‘the' and ‘a’ removed).

If the alias has a number on the end, such as 0 or 1, this means another page exists in the content management system (CMS) with the same page title. You may need to think of a more unique page title for your new page, or investigate whether this other page should be archived or have its alias changed.

If you change a page title, you should edit the alias to match the new title. This is good for search engine optimisation.

What to avoid with aliases

Never add an additional alias to a page, as it will split the analytics data.

Only edit an alias – don't delete it. If the alias for a page is deleted, the CMS page path will be the node number on the live site.

Before you edit an alias, it’s a good idea to check if any redirects exist for that alias and review whether these need any changes. Redirects from a CMS page to another CMS page in the same CMS environment (such as content.vic.gov.au) are usually based on the node, so may not need to be updated if the alias is changed.

How to edit an alias

Note: When you edit an alias, a redirect from the previous alias is automatically created.

Search for the page that needs to be edited in your content management system, such as content.vic.gov.au.

Click on the Content tab and add the page title into the Title field, and select Filter.

Once you find your page, click on the page Title to open the page.

You’ll be able to check the current URL alias for the page. For example: https://content.vic.gov.au/site-4/publishing-pages-on-vicgovau.

In a new tab, open URL aliases. This is found under Configuration > URL redirects.

In the Filter aliases field, type or paste the current URL for the page. For example: /site-4/how-publish-content-vic.govau.

Click Filter.

Choose your page from the list and click Edit.

You'll see 2 fields: System path and the URL alias. Don’t edit the System path field – this is the unique CMS identifier (node number) for the page.

Type the new alias into the URL alias field (for example: /site-4/publishing-pages-vic-gov-websites) and click Save. Do not remove /site-4/ from the beginning of the URL.

Your URL should now be updated. You can check this by refreshing the CMS version of the page.

Related articles