As new campaigns are taking off the issue of redirects and vanity URL’s has reared its ugly head again. Its one thing to add a specific URL in an electronic campaign where consumers click on a link anchored to text, yet quite another for outdoor, transit and print pieces. Does it matter anymore?
Even though it is from June, I recently read Do URL’s Matter Anymore. With all the headlines this week about search becoming more integrated into user-generated content and social interactions, will URL’s continue to die off in importance? Isnt search the final frontier in finding web content?
When creating campaigns for segmented audiences its helpful to know what worked and what didnt and when. If people are searching for your brand, but not your campaign, do you continue to use special URL’s in print, transit & outdoor or do you use these mediums for what they are probably best at now: awareness, interest & a call to action. Does it matter how your consumer arrives at their destination, or that they arrive? This is where true clean web design and navigation prevails: anyone should be able to arrive at your site and find what they are looking for, without your help or the aid of a landing page.
Thoughts?
Um… NO, they don’t matter anymore. Not unless you are doing a substaintial print campaign that is specifically driving people to a landing page or website. Otherwise, with a lot of marketing activity moving online, I think the vanities are a “nice to have” but not a “need to have.”