URL Best Practices
Do’s
1. Whenever possible, use YourBrandName.com.
2. If .com is not available, use YourBrandName.net.
3. If .com and .net are taken, find a new brand name. Seriously.
4. Use YourSlogan.com when running an integrated media campaign.
5. Use subdomains when driving people deeper than your homepage — e.g. Product.YourBrandName.com. The eye is trained to look for a domain and ignore everything that comes afterwards so slashes don’t work.
6. CapitalizeTheFirstLetterOfEachWord and/or UseDifferentColorsOrBoldToHelpEachWordStandOut
Don’ts
1. Don’t use acronyms, abbreviations, or numbers unless your brand is widely known as such.
2. Don’t use YourProduct.com or YourCategory.com as a replacement for YourBrandName.com. They should only be used as a supplement.
3. No-hyphens/or slashes.
4. Don’t include www (aka dubs) when displaying your URL. We know to go to the World Wide Web to find you.
5. Don’t include http://. If your audience isn’t web savvy enough to know where to type the URL, you shouldn’t have a website.
6. don’tusealllowercase (canyoureallytellwhereonewordendsandthenextbegins?)
7. DITTOFORALLUPPERCASE
8. Don’t
Stagger
Words
On
Separate
Lines
9. Don’t bury your URL at the bottom of an ad. I’m the only nerd running around with a 10x zoom lens to find URLs.
Raveendran 