Is “www” Necessary in Your MSP Marketing URLs?

URL—or uniform resource locator—is the technical term for the web address used to navigate to a website. Historically, the URL has always begun with “www,” to signify the “world wide web”... but is it really necessary to include this information on your marketing materials?

As it turns out, it hasn’t been for years, and there are quite a few reasons that you shouldn’t.

Why You Should Drop “www” From Your MSP Marketing URLs

With very few exceptions, the “www” prefix has not been necessary to include in a web address since 1994. In addition to this:

It Takes Longer, Both to Say and Type

Be honest: when was the last time you recited a website’s URL and actually included “www?” It’s just too cumbersome to be practical. Plus, with many address bars now doubling as search engines, it becomes especially redundant.

You want to make the process of navigating to your website as seamless as possible—particularly when you’re making use of printed materials. Giving them the simplest available URL to type helps make it that much more appealing for them to do so. It may be a little thing, but you’d be surprised by how often these little things can get in your way.

It Makes Your Website (and Marketing Overall) Feel Less “Human”

While your MSP would certainly qualify as a “tech company,” it is important to remember who your audience is: the average John/Joan Q. Businessowner. While they want you to know all the technical stuff, all they need to know is that they have someone to turn to. They need to know that they can go to your-website-dot-com. It’s simpler that way, and adding “w-w-w” to the mix just muddies it up at that point.

It Interferes With Your Branding

On a similar note, your website’s domain name (taking some of these points into account) is itself a marketing opportunity. Name recognition is a powerful tool, so the muddying impact that we just touched on is best to remove when it comes to your brand name.

Of course, you can keep going with this process, utilizing something known as a vanity URL in your marketing.

How Vanity URLs Can Benefit Your Marketing

You’ve probably seen vanity URLs in action before. A vanity URL, much like a vanity license, is a branded version of a shortened URL that makes it more appealing and memorable for your audience. These kinds of URLs—which just so happen to lack the “www,” by the way—offer a variety of benefits to a business.

Tracking Your Efforts Becomes Easier

This is particularly true when these links are used on social media. Tracking a shortened URL can provide you with insight into the behaviors of certain segments of your audience, as you can share different versions of a shortened URL in your various efforts to deem which is most effective… something that your business’ typical URLs can’t accomplish with so much specificity.

Brand Awareness Can Be Boosted

If you use a shortened URL to create an abbreviated version of your business’ brand, you can share your website’s links in your social media and other efforts while saving space. More importantly, a customized shortened URL can add another touchpoint to reinforce your brand with your audience.

They Work Well in Various Marketing Efforts

Due to its short length and memorability, a vanity URL is particularly flexible in terms of where it can be used. The little real estate needed for one of these links means that it literally can fit in more places that a conventional URL couldn’t. Postcards, branded items, and other cramped marketing deliverables can more effectively direct visitors to your website, and that’s not to say your vanity URL would be out of place in an email, on a billboard, or wherever else you wanted to use it.

Whatever links you want to share with your MSP’s marketing materials, we can help you make it happen. Reach out to us today to learn more about our various marketing services by calling 888-546-4384.