It can be considered something so simple, but what it really is, effective marketing. One of the simple but extremely POWERFUL uses of a make sense domain name. Simply using a "make sense" domain name and forwarding it (301 redirection) to a more confusing domain for your site.
Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles is a busy place today with rate hikes coming on Tuesday in all things related to vehicle registration, driver license renewal, licenses plate renewals etc.
In an effort to making it easy for people looking to beat the deadline, skip the wait in line at the offices and do the renewals online, the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles department uses the domain name GoRenew.com and forwards that domain to what most would have trouble remembering… a 6 letter acronym on a .gov extension of it’s main site, flhsmv.gov .
GoRenew.com is much easier to remember then flhsmv.gov! The make sense, clear and powerful .com extension domain will result in less missed customers and less head scratching.
This same marketing effort can help website owners of all kinds as well that made a poor choice in the past, use a confusing domain name for their main web address. Buying / owning a clear, make sense domain name can cost a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars, but getting your customers where you want them can be Priceless!
Although "shorter" may seem better for your web address, the internet is powered by Keywords! Using a domain name that pertains to your main marketing message will be much more effective then "shortening things up" via a confusing acronym, adding a number with words, sticking in a hyphen or using a TLD that most are not use to using.
Domain name forwarding can be done at Any Time and you the owner have full control of the domain name and where it will send people. It may be a specific page on your site you wish to send your customers to land on.. no problem with 301 redirection! You just have to Do It! Why wait another day or minute… your customers will love you for it as well!
Excellent point and definitely something I think more companies should be doing. A few weeks ago I heard an ad on the radio for a product I wanted to buy. While sitting at the traffic light I typed the URL into my iPhone but it went to a different site.
Since the website URL was difficult to remember (and too long to give over the radio) I was never able to find the site or buy the product. If they would have just used a more simple URL and redirected it to their site they would definitely get more customers.
August 31st, 2009