Question

Topic: E-Marketing

Should Our Url Include "www"

Posted by aschloemer on 7/29/2011 at 1:53 PM ET 125 Points
Our company is in the process of developing standards for our marketing literature as a part of a rebranding strategy. To that end, we’re trying to determine whether there’s any real benefit or trends on including/omitting “www” when displaying web addresses in copy (e.g., www.ourcompanyname.com vs. ourcompanyname.com). Does anyone have any experience or data in this area that could help point us in a direction?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 7/29/2011 at 6:52 PM Member
    Audiences are far more technically savvy that they're given credit for. So generally, the "www" prefix is no longer necessary.

    I hope this helps.
  • Posted by cathym on 7/29/2011 at 7:45 PM Accepted
    Might depend who your target market is.

    If it's consumers, including seniors, I'd still include the www.

    Might look cooler without it and technically it's unnecessary but for usability/no confusion I'd lean towards using it.
  • Posted by peg on 7/30/2011 at 4:50 PM Member
    For branding, the www. is understood and can be dropped, which is particularly helpful if your company name is longer than the norm. However, if you're creating rigid rules, leave room for the www. in some marketing communications. For instance, when communicating on a forum such as this one, a web address is not linkable unless preceded by a www. To illustrate:

    example.com
    www.example.com

    Just saying don't disallow its use.
  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 7/30/2011 at 6:43 PM Member
    It's a good idea to have both the 'www' and non-www addresses in the A records on the domain name server so if your users' browser does not automatically insert the 'www' they will still arrive at the intended page.

    If in doubt, test your web address both ways with a range of browsers.
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