How usable and memorable is your site’s web address (URL)?
When you tell people about your URL to get them to go to your website, it is typically a small space at the end of a brochure, a single line in a magazine article, or a few words on screen for a few seconds. You have a brief moment to make an impact, tie it to your brand, and make it memorable. So make every character count.
Research has shown that offline media drives people to the web for more information. So, when you pique someone’s interest, do you provide a URL that is memorable, understandable, readable, and typeable? (Is type-able a word? That means if you have hyphens, forward slashes, back slashes, underscores, etc., the average person won’t be able to type it correctly.) Remember, not everyone is web-savvy. There is still a significant percentage of the online population that can’t (or doesn’t bother to) differentiate between an address bar and a search box. Two of the top ten queries on Google and Yahoo each month are “Google.com” and “Yahoo.com.”
Give people URLs they can easily remember and easily type. Here are a few best practices (borrowed and adapted from Aaron Goldman and other sources):
Dos
1. CapitalizeTheFirstLetterOfEachWord. For example, HowStuffWorks.com is easier to read than howstuffworks.com. It can also alleviate miscommunications, as in speedofart.com, which is more clearly read when spelled SpeedOfArt.com.
2. UseDifferentColorsOrBoldToHelpEachWordStandOut. For example, SamsungJuke.com.
3. Whenever possible, use YourBrandName.com.
4. If .com is not available, use .org. If you’re really desperate, use .net. If .com, .net, and .org are taken, find a new brand name. Seriously. Don’t even think about .biz and other options.
5. Use YourSlogan.com when running an integrated media campaign.
6. Use subdomains (like temples.lds.org) rather than subdirectories (like lds.org/temples). If you need a specific temple, SaltLakeTemple.lds.org is much better than lds.org/temples/saltlake. These can be set up easily, so NEVER use a convoluted URL. Set up a subdomain that is simple to remember and simple to type.
7. Use subdomains when driving people deeper than your homepage. I recently got a mailing that said “go to http://www.dol.gov/osbp/sbrefa/poster/matrix.htm.” Are they kidding? Why didn’t they set up the subdomain poster.dol.gov?
8. Use alternate URLs or subdomains to track campaigns. For example, in a TV ad for Allstate, they use the name GetAllstate.com instead of Allstate.com so they can track the traffic driven by the TV spot.
Don’ts
1. Don’t include www. Most people know that the phrase “go to LDS.org” means to go to a website. If it isn’t clear from the sentence, then say “go to the website LDS.org.”
2. Don’t include http://. This just confuses people further. Most modern browsers are able to interpret a web address without http:// and without www. Don’t make your audience think they have to type more than they do.
3. don’tusealllowercase (canyoureallytellwhereonewordendsandthenextbegins?)
4. DITTOFORALLUPPERCASE.
5. No-hyphens/or slashes. See the comment about subdomains in #6 above.
6. Don’t use acronyms, abbreviations, or numbers unless your brand is widely known as such.
7. Don’t bury your URL at the bottom of a billboard. How many people drive around with a 4x zoom lens to find URLs?
Some good and bad examples of URLs can be found at GoodURLBadURL.com.
In an integrated effort, like Church websites, you may not want to run out and get unique URLs for every site. It may be important to brand the sites into a suite or family of sites, both visually, and by URL. In our case, we have a consistent central brand around the domain name LDS.org, and can use subdomains of LDS.org for most things (for example, temples.lds.org, primary.lds.org, ces.lds.org, music.lds.org, catalog.lds.org, and youngwomen.lds.org) without having to reinvent an entirely new domain name.
Church websites for members typically use a subdomain of LDS.org to make it clear that the site is from the Church. Because there are many LDS-related websites, this helps members distinguish between Church site and other sites. For example, members cannot know from the name whether josephsmith.net or josephsmith.com is the Church site. (Do you know which is the Church site?) Also, there are many sites with names similar to the names of Church sites. To solve this, we usually tie Church sites back to the LDS.org brand so it is clear from the URL that these sites are Church sites. For example, josephsmith.lds.org makes it clear that this is a site from the Church about Joseph Smith.
I think it’s fascinating that people who work for the church have e-mail addresses in the form of XYZABC@ldschurch.com, instead of XYZABC@lds.org
I like this practice – to me it differentiates between the church as a religious entity (lds.org) and the church as a business/organizational entity (ldschurch.com).
The lds.org web site could do well to follow #6 in the “Do’s” column. Who would expect that the main Sunday School homepage would be http://www.lds.org/pa/display/0,17884,4648-1,00.html ? All those numbers give me a headache…
I was pleased to read your mention of sub domains of LDS.org however I was disappointed to find that only three of the ones you mentioned actually worked? (temples.lds.org ces.lds.org and josephsmith.lds.org)
Rather than just try haphazardly is there any listing somewhere of the ones that have been set-up?
Amen… the krufty addresses are a headache. But it seems that they’ve gotten somewhat better over the last year or so.
But this is still the home page:
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=e419fb40e21cef00VgnVCM1000001f5e340aRCRD
Um… wouldn’t “lds.org” do?
Going along with Silus’ comment, I pretty sure that it wouldn’t be that hard to use a mod_rewrite rule in apache to turn some long complicated URL into simply, LDS.org.
One of the problems with having weird urls like:
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/ is then what happens when someone goes to link to that page by copying the URL out of the location bar of their browser? Then you change your homepage technologies or something and all of a sudden, their link doesn’t point to the homepage anymore.
So what about SEO, Brother Richman.
Do you think that having sites as subdomains instead of on their own domains hurt the sites rankings?
Are there plans in the near future for a mod rewrite as Jacob mentioned that will help with the SEO rankings as well as the linking of other sites?
You’re all exactly right! We’re not yet where we want to be with LDS.org. One of the things we did with the redesigned LDS.org that launched in January, was to install a content management system to handle all the languages (which will come in about six months). The content management system made it difficult to control the domain names, but we’ve now figured out how to override the wierd and long URLs the system automatically generates, and do it in multiple languages. When we implement these enhancements within a few months, you’ll see a huge improvement in the URLs.
Great job!
Are there any plans to involve members with websites by asking them to link to their favorite LDS website in an effort to increase the incoming links for the Church?
Also, is there a list somewhere of all the Church Web sites?
Thoughts on ihc.com turning into intermountainhealthcare.org?
I look forward to the changes… and especially hope that there is some fuzzy logic on the back-end. Moreover, I hope that a real commitment evolves towards permanent content — and permanent URLs.
I don’t link much to LDS.org for two reasons: the perceived impermanence of the content, and the difficulty the Church has in telling its own story. Fixing the URLs and committing to permanent content is a great first step. The other point… well, that will take some effort from other folks.
🙂
And as far as changing IHC.com to intermountainhealthcare.org… right thing, wrong direction.
I hate when non-profits sport .COM TLDs. Drives me CRAZY. So I’m glad that they’re finally owning that they are, indeed, a .ORG.
On the other hand, when I worked with folks in IHC PR, I plead with them to change their name. “Intermountain Health Care” and “IHC” sound like a giant 50s-era, faceless, out-of-state corporation — instead of the home-grown, non-profit, family of hospitals that it is. No wonder they have such a problem on the Hill — people naturally perceive them as the bad guy. It’s like naming your son “Sue” — wrong message.
So, yeah… right thing, wrong direction.
Oh… didn’t complete my thought:
I hope there’s some fuzzy logic on the back-end so “oldtestament.LDS.org”, “LDS.org/oldtestament/”, “LDS.org/OT/”, et cetera all resolve properly.
Now, granted, a fixed approach to the “true” path is necessary. Set a schema in place, and stick to it — make it transparent and guessable. But then allow people to make a mistake and still reach their desired destination.
I would especially like a system that would educate along the way: I can just picture a Basecamp-esque fade-away box at the head of the page that says “in the future, you can reach this page directly at ‘LDS.org/schema_appropriate_URL'”.
Another thought: I’m not entirely bowled-over by #7. Sub-domains for LARGE and NATURAL sub-divisions of content — like “wards.LDS.org”, “news.LDS.org” — is okay. But I’d hate to see “oldtestament.LDS.org” be an actual URL (I’d still like it to work — but it’s just too granular to be a true path). Not to mention the SEO implications.
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And while I’m here… I might as well encourage the web team to stage a coup and wrestle the MLS system from whomever has it now. Using MLS is a life-shortening, soul-destroying experience.
* Viva la e-Revolución! *
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